A Heart in a Body in the World

Each step in Annabelle's 2,700-mile cross-country run brings her closer to facing a trauma from her past in this novel about the heart, all the ways it breaks, and its journey to healing.

Zusatztext "This is! quite simply! a book everyone should read right now." Informationen zum Autor Deb Caletti is the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of over sixteen books for adults and young adults, including Honey, Baby, Sweetheart , a finalist for the National Book Award; A Heart in a Body in the World , a Michael L. Printz Honor Book; Girl, Unframed ; and One Great Lie . Her books have also won the Josette Frank Award for Fiction, the Washington State Book Award, and numerous other state awards and honors, and she was a finalist for the PEN USA Award. She lives with her family in Seattle. Klappentext Each step in Annabelle's 2,700-mile cross-country run brings her closer to facing a trauma from her past in this novel about the heart, all the ways it breaks, and its journey to healing. Leseprobe A Heart in a Body in the World 1 Annabelle Agnelli is trying to hold it together in the parking lot of Dick's Drive-In. After what just happened, she's stunned. Frozen. And thenimagine itAnnabelle's wrecked self suddenly takes off like a lightning bolt. She's clutching the white bag, which has the unfortunate word, Dick's, stamped across it in orange. Her burger is still warm. She's holding the Coke, too, which sloshes like a stormy sea as she tries to outrun the bad visions of the recent past. French fries spring loose in the bag, and it shakes around like a maraca. Of course she's heard that sayingA journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Coach Kwan has a poster of it in his office. It shows the silhouette of a girl at sunset, running up a steep mountain path, and it's all clouds parting and God rays shining down and purple mountain majesties. There is no panic and dropped napkins and hair flying. That poster does not look like this. Where is she going? No idea. Why is she going? Well, sometimes you just snap. Snapping is easy when you're already brittle from the worst possible thing happening. It is easy when you're broken and guilty and scared. You snap just like that. Like the snap has been waiting around for the right moment. So, now, Annabelle Agnelli is no longer trying to hold it together in the Dick's Drive-In parking lot. She's lost it. Utterly lost it. She's ditched her car entirely, and she's jogging down the sidewalk, fast, at a really good clip. Coach Kwan would be proud. She's getting sweaty and her mind is swirling, and it's all a little unhinged for the straight-A student that she is. She is a good and nice person who keeps things together, but that has been a big job, an enormous job, a job that's way, way too big for her lately. It gets worse. Of course, this is what often happens: Things get worse and worse still. A spiral follows gravity downward. She's been running for who knows how long, and it starts to get dark. It's metaphor-darkness, but it's also just the truth. Night falls. Big clouds cross the sky, threatening rain. So many things are fallingnight, rain, the last of the stuff holding Annabelle Agnelli together. She's halfway down Seattle's busy thoroughfare of Broadway. Then she turns down Cherry, and before she knows it, Annabelle is on the path that hugs Lake Washington. It's March, which means that the sun goes down around five, five thirty. She has no idea what time it is, though. People with hunched shoulders and their jacket hoods up are walking their dogs. Little dogs and big dogs are pulled and yankedthere's no time for luxurious sniffing with the sky that black. There's a bicyclist or two or twenty, speeding home after work, their wheels zizzing by her. Backpacks are slung over...

"This is, quite simply, a book everyone should read right now."

Autorentext
Deb Caletti is the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of over sixteen books for adults and young adults, including Honey, Baby, Sweetheart, a finalist for the National Book Award; A Heart in a Body in the World, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book; Girl, Unframed; and One Great Lie. Her books have also won the Josette Frank Award for Fiction, the Washington State Book Award, and numerous other state awards and honors, and she was a finalist for the PEN USA Award. She lives with her family in Seattle.

Klappentext

Each step in Annabelle’s 2,700-mile cross-country run brings her closer to facing a trauma from her past in this novel about the heart, all the ways it breaks, and its journey to healing.

Zusammenfassung
Each step in Annabelle's 2,700-mile cross-country run brings her closer to facing a trauma from her past in this novel about the heart, all the ways it breaks, and its journey to healing.

Leseprobe
A Heart in a Body in the World

1

Annabelle Agnelli is trying to hold it together in the parking lot of Dick’s Drive-In. After what just happened, she’s stunned. Frozen. And then—imagine it—Annabelle’s wrecked self suddenly takes off like a lightning bolt. She’s clutching the white bag, which has the unfortunate word, Dick’s, stamped across it in orange. Her burger is still warm. She’s holding the Coke, too, which sloshes like a stormy sea as she tries to outrun the bad visions of the recent past. French fries spring loose in the bag, and it shakes around like a maraca.

Of course she’s heard that saying—A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Coach Kwan has a poster of it in his office. It shows the silhouette of a girl at sunset, running up a steep mountain path, and it’s all clouds parting and God rays shining down and purple mountain majesties. There is no panic and dropped napkins and hair flying. That poster does not look like this.

Where is she going? No idea.

Why is she going? Well, sometimes you just snap. Snapping is easy when you’re already brittle from the worst possible thing happening. It is easy when you’re broken and guilty and scared. You snap just like that. Like the snap has been waiting around for the right moment.

So, now, Annabelle Agnelli is no longer trying to hold it together in the Dick’s Drive-In parking lot. She’s lost it. Utterly lost it. She’s ditched her car entirely, and she’s jogging down the sidewalk, fast, at a really good clip. Coach Kwan would be proud. She’s getting sweaty and her mind is swirling, and it’s all a little unhinged for the straight-A student that she is. She is a good and nice person who keeps things together, but that has been a big job, an enormous job, a job that’s way, way too big for her lately.

It gets worse. Of course, this is what often happens: Things get worse and worse still. A spiral follows gravity downward. She’s been running for who knows how long, and it starts to get dark. It’s metaphor-darkness, but it’s also just the truth. Night falls. Big clouds cross the sky, threatening rain. So many things are falling—night, rain, the last of the stuff holding Annabelle Agnelli together.

She’s halfway down Seattle’s busy thoroughfare of Broadway. Then she turns down Cherry, and before she knows it, Annabelle is on the path that hugs Lake Washington. It’s March, which means that the sun goes down around five, five thirty. She has no idea what time it is, though. People with hunched shoulders and their jacket hoods up are walking their dogs. Little dogs and big dogs are pulled and yanked—there’s no time for luxurious sniffing with the sky that black. There’s a bicyclist or two or twenty, speeding home after work, their wheels zizzing by her. Backpacks are slung over their shoulders. Their tight, shiny bike pants shoot past, meteo…