Broken as Things Are Book

"A sensitive southern tale of weirdly imaginative children and hapless adults. Ms. Witt has staked out a territory somewhere between Harper Lee and Flannery O'Connor."---E. L. Doctorow

From the day that Morgan-Lee is born, her extraordinarily beautiful and withdrawn older brother, Ginx, is obsessed by her. Inhabiting their own parallel world, the two communicate through a secret language and make-believe stories. Ginx is not only emotionally dependent on his sister; he also suffers from Asperger's syndrome---a high- functioning form of autism. When Morgan-Lee begins to explore friendships beyond their closed circle, Ginx becomes increasingly disturbed. In luminous prose Martha Witt explores the intense and private world inhabited by these siblings and the inevitable and necessary pain of their separation.

"Seductive...The reward of this intense read is a sister's thoughtful struggle for a way to love her sibling without losing herself."---Entertainment Weekly

"Witt's riveting debut is a disturbing, accomplished novel.... Wildly imaginative and intelligent...an often profound, unsettling story of children struggling to understand love, truth, and sacrifice."---Booklist

"Everything you come upon seems absolutely new. A real wonder."---Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"Many first novels are stories about coming of age in a dysfunctional family; few are as daring or poised as Hillsborough-native Martha Witt's Broken as Things Are, a Southern gothic tale of obsession.... Morgan-Lee is one of the most complex and intriguing adolescents to grace the pages of a novel in quite some time."---The Charlotte Observer

"[Broken as Things Are] gives a droll twist to the tropes of dysfunction.... Arch, slyly humorous...this is an unusual, uncompromising debut."---Publishers Weekly

"An enviable, soul-affirming novel."---Haven Kimmel, author of A Girl Named Zippy
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Martha Witt grew up in Hillsborough, North Carolina. She lives in New York City with her husband, son, and daughter. Broken as Things Are is her first novel.

Publishers Weekly

Told in the dry, savant-like voice of 14-year-old Morgan-Lee, this tale of a Southern girl's coming-of-age gives a droll twist to the tropes of dysfunction. Morgan-Lee and her handsome, "unwell" 15-year-old brother, Ginx, are as emotionally close as twins. They have a secret language-a nonsensical patois that Ginx created-and share a running story about a brother and sister who are given permission to love each other forever and ever. Their mother is an overdelicate flower who's taken to her bed rather than face her son's problems; their father is kind but incapable of taking control; and their younger sister, Dana, has all but abandoned the family, moving into her aunt and uncle's house next door. Everything is proceeding as well as can be expected-one accepts, for example, that it's okay for Ginx to give his sister the occasional concussion-until Morgan-Lee falls in love with her childhood friend, Billy. Neither sibling is prepared for the inevitable as Morgan-Lee's adolescence strains the family bonds and pitches the household into full-blown crisis. Arch, slyly humorous and occasionally overblown ("I felt my jaw throb and swell, drinking the purple and black straight out of that warm evening"), this is an unusual, uncompromising debut. Agent, Bill Clegg. Author tour. (Aug. 3) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.