TRUE

“This book broke my heart and put it back together again. This isn’t just about the culture of high-stakes, highly competitive youth sports; True is about how friendship grows into rivalry, the powerful conflict between ambition and image, and the responsibilities to family pitted against responsibility to the whims and desires of your own heart. I was rooting for True through every suspenseful and chaotic page; believe me, you will too.” —Charles Bock, bestselling author of Alice & Oliver

“I can’t recall the last time I encountered a narrator as compelling as True. She is as strong as she is vulnerable and as talented as she is isolated and as single-minded as she is reckless. Have you ever wanted anything so badly that you broke bones for it? This is the story of that kind of want, the point at which drive and desire collude, commiserate, combust. And the prose. Karl Taro Greenfeld writes with a disarming, almost subversive intimacy that will own you from the very first page. I want this book in the hands of every reader I know. Yes. It’s that good.” —Jill Alexander Essbaum, author of New York Times bestselling novel Hausfrau

“True is a dark and lively ode to the single-minded dedication required of greatness, a Black Swan on the pitch. I couldn't put it down.” —Amelia Gray, author of Isadora and Gutshot: Stories

“There’s only one thing you can say after reading True: Karl Taro Greenfeld is one of the best writers around. Get ready. This book will destroy you.” —Scott McClanahan, author of The Sarah Book

“Greenfeld writes from the perspective of a young woman with ease and believability; there are no false notes here, not a single moment that I didn’t feel completely invested in, and half in love with, True. True feels as if it were written in a dream, as if Greenfeld was only there to transcribe it, which is what every writer hopes to achieve in a novel.” —Mary Miller, author of Big World, The Last Days of California, and Always Happy Hour

“True held me in thrall as I followed its namesake narrator from girlhood to adulthood. With so many coming-of-age stories showcasing characters searching for themselves, True knows exactly who she is. It’s the rest of her world—father, sister, coach, teammates, lovers—that expects more from her, that expects her to fall in line as countless girls and women before her have done. This is a heartbreaking, riveting tale of what it is to be yourself, no matter what.” —Lindsay Hunter, author of Ugly Girls, Don’t Kiss Me, and Eat Only When You’re Hungry