TWO SISTERS: Kate is bound for Stanford and an M.D. -- if her family will let her go. Mary wants only to stay home and paint. When their loving but repressive father dies, they must figure out how to support themselves and their mother, who is in a permanent vegetative state, and how to get along in all their uneasy sisterhood.
THREE YOUNG MEN: Then three men sway their lives: Kate's boyfriend Simon offers to marry her, providing much-needed stability. Mary is drawn to Marcos, though she fears his violent past. And Andy tempts Kate with more than romance, recognizing her ambition because it matches his own.
ONE AGONIZING CHOICE: Kate and Mary each find new possibilities and darknesses in their sudden freedom. But it's Mama's life that might divide them for good -- the question of *if* she lives, and what's worth living for.
Irises is Francisco X. Stork's most provocative and courageous novel yet.
Francisco X. Stork
Francisco X. Stork is the author of
Marcelo in the Real World, winner of the Schneider Family Book Award for Teens and the Once Upon a World Award;
The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, which was named to the YALSA Best Fiction for Teens list and won the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award;
Irises;
The Memory of Light, which received four starred reviews; and
Disappeared, which also received four starred reviews and was named a
Kirkus Best Book of the Year. He lives near Boston with his wife. You can find him on the web at franciscostork.com and @StorkFrancisco.
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- ! "“Hello? Hello?”
\tKate hesitated. She could hang up now and go back home.
Home. Home was a mother who was dying but never died, a sister who couldn't live
alone. Home was the place that gripped you by the ankles whenever you tried to make
something of yourself. “Hello,” she said tentatively. There was something about
taking that first step that gave her strength.
\t“Who's this?\"
\t\"It's
me.\"
\t“Kate? Is everything okay?”
\t“Remember when you told me I could call
you day or night?”
\t“You sound like you're in trouble. Where are you?”
\tShe
took a deep breath. She knew what she was doing and had no doubts. She wanted to
make sure she didn't sound as if she did. “Did you mean it?”"
