“As vast and ambitious as the country itself…A very respectable and serious descendant of the work of D.H. Lawrence…Hamann has put together a carefully devised, coherent world, filled with opinions that need to be spoken—and heard.”—Washington Post “Addictive reading. Hamann inhabits the skin of a teenage girl so accurately, so effortlessly, it's a bit of a relief she has found her way into the book world.”—NPR.org “Moving beyond the high school years and less compressed and stylized than The Catcher in the Rye, a version of this novel was self-published in 2003 and found a huge audience, and with good reason. Reworked since then, it is more than a semiautobiographical coming-of-age story. Hamann has a hugely engaging voice and one that is rich with social and psychological insights into Reagan-era America as she creates a young, artistic woman with dreams who is buffeted about by reality.”—Chicago Tribune     Self-published in 2003, Hilary Thayer Hamann’s Anthropology of an American Girl touched a nerve among readers, who identified with the sexual and intellectual awakening of its heroine, a young woman on the brink of adulthood.  A moving depiction of the transformative power of first love, Hamann’s first novel follows Eveline Auerbach from her high school years in East Hampton, New York, in the 1970s through her early adulthood in the moneyed, high-pressured Manhattan of the 1980s. This has remained my favorite book of the year. It is a deeply intense love story, an earnest, heart-breaking coming-of-age story written in evocative, thrilling prose. Evie is a strong girl fighting the world and its expectations, attempting to become a strong woman. She is transformed by her first, deep love in a way that every woman wishes she was. This is an unforgettable story. Please take this opportunity to meet an author who has already garnered so much praise at the beginning of her literary career.