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Published by She Writes Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
It's Berkeley in the 1960s, and all Martha Goldenthal wants is to do well at Berkeley High and plan for college. But her home life is a cauldron of kooky ideas, impossible demands, and explosive physical violence. Her father, Jules, is an iconoclast who hates academia and can’t control his fists. Her mother, Willa, has made a career of victimhood and expects Martha and her siblings, Hildy and Drew, to fend for themselves. Meanwhile, Jules’s classical record store, located directly across the street from the U.C. Berkeley campus, is ground zero for riots and tear gas.
Martha perseveres with the help of her best friend, who offers laughter, advice about boys, and hospitality. But when Willa and Jules divorce and Jules loses his store and livelihood, Willa goes entirely off the rails. A heartless boarding school placement, eviction from the family home, and an unlikely custody case wind up putting Martha and Drew in Jules's care. Can Martha stand up to her father to do the one thing she knows she must—go to college?
With its running "soundtrack" of classical recordings and rock music and its vivid scenes of Berkeley at its most turbulent, Shrug is the absorbing, harrowing, and ultimately uplifting story of one young woman’s journey toward independence.
Martha perseveres with the help of her best friend, who offers laughter, advice about boys, and hospitality. But when Willa and Jules divorce and Jules loses his store and livelihood, Willa goes entirely off the rails. A heartless boarding school placement, eviction from the family home, and an unlikely custody case wind up putting Martha and Drew in Jules's care. Can Martha stand up to her father to do the one thing she knows she must—go to college?
With its running "soundtrack" of classical recordings and rock music and its vivid scenes of Berkeley at its most turbulent, Shrug is the absorbing, harrowing, and ultimately uplifting story of one young woman’s journey toward independence.
Product Details
- Publisher: She Writes Press (August 13, 2019)
- Length: 272 pages
- ISBN13: 9781631526398
Raves and Reviews
2020 IPPY Awards Gold Winner, YA Fiction
2020 IBPA Benjamin Franklin Awards Silver Winner, Fiction
2019 Moonbeam Award Gold Medal Winner, YA Fiction, Historical
2019 Best Book Award Finalist in YA Fiction
2019 Sarton Women's Book Awards Finalist, Historical Fiction
2020 Goethe Awards (post-1750 historical fiction) Finalist
2020 Independent Press Awards Distinguished Favorite, YA Fiction
2019 Wishing Shelf Book Awards Finalist
14th Annual NIEA Winner, Regional Fiction West
“As persuasive as the memoirs Educated and The Glass Castle, Shrug yanks at the heartstrings... I felt white-knuckled empathy for the tough and fragile Martha.”
—Carolyn McVickar Edwards, author of Return of the Light and The Storyteller's Goddess
“A book that slowly creeps up on you before grabbing you by the throat and demanding that you pay attention. I highly recommend this read.”
—Grant Leishman, Readers’ Favorite
“Rich with colorful characters, vivid descriptions and subtle insights... Moss’s graceful prose brings you along on this poignant coming-of-age journey with pathos and humor.”
—Rifka Kreiter, author of Home Free: Adventures of a Child of the Sixties
“Moss takes achingly relatable teenage angst and subjects it to parents so off-the-rails that the explosive Berkley antics around the Vietnam War 'outside' pale next to the domestic horror of the war at home—and then sets it to music. A book with a voice for generations, from Boomers to their grandchildren.”
—Rita Dragonette, author of The Fourteenth of September
“Gripping from beginning to end, this beautifully written work is impossible to put down.”
—The BookLife Prize
“A complex and compelling coming-of-age story . . . highly recommended.”
—The Wishing Shelf Book Awards
“Read this book. It will knock your socks off.”
—Laurin Porter, author of The Banished Prince: Time, Memory, and Ritual in the Late Plays of Eugene O'Neill
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
- Book Cover Image (jpg): Shrug eBook 9781631526398
