Amazon comLaura Moriarty's debut novel is a simple story, but effectively told Ten-year-old Evelyn Bucknow lives with her not very responsible young mother, Tina, on the outskirts of a small Kansas town The Center of Everything follows a clean arc: How Evelyn, a gifted but poor student, negotiates the pitfalls of her background to become a college ожьюи student The book shows the scary tenuousness of poverty When Tina's car breaks down, their life falls apart like a flimsy cardboard edifice Evelyn can't get to school, Tina can't get to work, and unseemly relationships with men who own cars develop The novel's other theme is the importance of teaching; when one of her teachers tells her she's gifted, Evelyn's life is changed "She takes off her glasses, still looking at me I take off my glasses too, because for a moment I think she is going to place them on my eyes, the way you place a crown on someone's head when they become queen Welcome to being smart " As she heads into adolescence, Evelyn sees her best friend fall in love and become pregnant, just as Tina did when she was a teenager Evelyn resists these traps, not without some lovelorn, lonely moments The Center of Everything careens dangerously near fingerwagging at times, but the book's salvation comes from unexpected quarters: Evelyn's mom Tina At the outset, she seems beleaguered and lost, but as the book progresses she develops a wry resiliency We get to watch Evelyn and Tina grow up together, and it's a rare sight --Claire DedererBook DescriptionNow in paperback, Laura Moriarty's breakthrough novel of growing up and growing wise Critics and readers everywhere stood up and took notice when Laura Moriarty's captivating debut novel hit the stores in June '03 Janet Maslin of the New York Times praised The Center of Everything as "warm" and "beguiling " USA Today compared the scrappy yet tenderhearted Evelyn Bucknow to Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird It garnered extensive national attention; from Entertainment Weekly to the Boston Globe and the San Francisco Chronicle, the press raved about the wisdom and poignancy of Moriarty's writing The Book-of-the-Month Club snatched it up as a Main Selection, as did the Literary Guild It was a USA Today Summer Reading Pick, a BookSense Top 10 Pick, and a BN com book club feature title And still, months after The Center of Everything's original publication date, reviews and features of the book continue to run nationwide With a reading group guide bound into the book and a stellar hardcover publication behind it, the paperback edition of The Center of Everything is poised to explode onto the scene again, and Evelyn Bucknow is readyto steal more hearts than ever.  Кольцо, серебро2004 г 352 стр ISBN 0786888458.