After having one too many run-ins with the police a troubled 17-year-old boy is forced to move to New York City for psychiatric care. Throughout the summer that follows he learns not only about the brutalities of life, b…

The novel follows a woman, Modesta, who is born on 1 January 1900 and her experiences though her life in the twentieth century. The text is written for the most part in the first person (by Modesta), but sometimes also i…