This Whiting Award Winner is “a bold, funny, mordant, and deeply intelligent debut” (David Foster Wallace, author of Infinite Jest).
A New York Times Editors’ Choice
Benjamin arrives with his parents for a tour of Roaring Orchards, a therapeutic boarding school tucked away in upstate New York. Suddenly, his parents are gone and Benjamin learns that he is there to stay. Sixteen years old, and two failed suicide attempts, Benjamin must navigate his way through a new world of morning meds, candor meetings, and cartoon brunches—all run by adults who have yet to really come of age themselves.
The only person who comprehends the school’s many rules and rituals is Aubrey, the founder and headmaster who is fragile, brilliant, and prone to rage. But when Aubrey falls ill, life at the school begins to unravel. Benjamin has no one to rely on but the other students, in particular an intriguing but untrustworthy girl named Tidbit. More and more, Benjamin thinks about running away from Roaring Orchards—but he feels an equal need to know just what it is he would be leaving behind . . .
