The Moth Girl

Flying doesn't always mean freedom.

Anna is a regular teenaged girl. She runs track with her best friend, gets good grades, and sometimes drinks beer at parties.

But one day at track practice, Anna falls unconscious . . . but instead of falling down, she falls up, defying gravity in the disturbing first symptom of a mysterious disease.

This begins a series of trips to the hospital that soon become Anna's norm. She's diagnosed with lepidopsy: a rare illness that causes symptoms reminiscent of moths: floating, attraction to light, a craving for sugar, and for an unlucky few, more dangerous physical manifestations.

Anna's world is turned upside down, and as she learns to cope with her illness, she finds herself drifting further and further away from her former life. Her friends don't seem to understand, running track is out of the question, and the other kids at the disease clinic she attends once a week are a cruel reminder that things will never be the same.

From debut author Heather Kamins comes a beautiful and evocative story about one girl's journey of choosing who she wants to be--in a life she never planned for.


About the Author
Heather Kamins is the recipient of an Artist Fellowship from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and her short fiction has appeared in Guernica and elsewhere. The Moth Girl is her first novel. She lives in Western Massachusetts with her husband, two cats, and the variety of woodland creatures who stroll through her yard.