Lucky Press

Max and Menna by Shauna Kelley

The novel tells the story of Max and Menna, two siblings surviving a deplorable home life in the South in the early 1980s. Telling the story from each of their viewpoints, Max and Menna outline their reliance on each other and on Nick, their only friend, as they cope with growing up in poverty, living with an alcoholic mother, and having no indication of the other half of their parentage.

The story opens with Max and Menna in the eighth grade. They meet Nick, a Native American, and the story continues to take place during their summer vacations progressively through high school.

Max, quiet and introspective, struggles to understand how to be the only man in the house and protect a family that seems determined to destroy itself. Menna is quick-tempered and vivacious, and grows to love and view Nick as a method of coping with a childhood that requires her to be very adult.

Despite the strength of the bond the three of them share, however, their environment works against them. As the children of the town drunk, the younger siblings of the town slut, and the friends of an Indian from “over the fence,” Max and Menna fight not only to grow up, and get out, but to stay together, and stay safe.

Read an Excerpt Order from Barnes and Noble / Amazon (Available Nov. 1, 2010)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Shauna Kelley works in the marketing department of a non-fiction publisher and has been in the publishing business for more than five years. Previous writing credits include a regular column for “The Inditer,” and a National Arts Endowment award for the short fiction version of Max and Menna. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland.
Kelley says of Max and Menna, “This is a story that has been with me for a long time, but I hadn’t, until quite recently, lived enough to begin to do it justice. I relied on the excellent example of my writing heroes—Margaret Atwood, Sherman Alexie, and John Irving—and hope I have constructed a book that will appeal to women and young adults and help them learn about the human capacity for overcoming unbearable situations. This is a lesson that I have only just begun to understand.”

Visit Shauna Kelley's blog

Hardcover with jacket: ISBN: 978-0-9844627-3-5 Retail: $ 26.00 USD
Paperback: ISBN: 978-0-9844627-4-2 Retail: $ 14.95 USD
Dimensions: 5.5 x 8.5, 208 pgs Library of Congress Number: 2010925471
FICTION / Coming of Age FICTION / General Fiction
JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Prejudice & Racism Ages 15 and up.
JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Physical & Emotional Abuse
JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Drugs, Alcohol, Substance Abuse
Release: November 1, 2010

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Max and Menna by Shauna Kelley