My absolute love

My Absolute Love is a brilliant, immersive, and gripping read about a girl's fight for her own soul.

Turtle Alveston is a survivor. At fourteen, she wanders the forest along the northern California coast. The streams, pools, and rocky islands are her refuges and hiding places. But while her physical world is vast, her personal world is small and treacherous: since her mother's death, Turtle has lived in isolation with her father, Martin, who tortures and loves her at the same time. Her social existence is limited to high school (where she pushes away anyone, student or teacher, who might be interested in her life) and her father.

Then Turtle meets Jacob, a high school boy who tells jokes, lives in a big, clean house, and looks at Turtle like she's the sunrise. And for the first time, the world begins to come into focus: her life with Martin isn't safe.

Motivated by her first real friendships and teenage crushes, Turtle begins to imagine an escape, using the survival skills her father dedicated himself to teaching her. What follows is a harrowing story of bravery and redemption. Through Turtle's escalating acts of physical and emotional courage, the reader watches, anguished, as the teenager struggles to become her own hero—and, in the process, becomes our own.

With striking language in a natural and fierce setting, My Absolute Love is a profound and moving read told with urgency and marks the debut of an extraordinary new writer.

"There are books we love enough to recommend, but very few we remember forever. To my list, I can now add My Absolute Love . This book is ugly, beautiful, terrifying, and uplifting." - Stephen King

“This generation's literary heroine... This is one of the most important books of the decade.” - Harper's Bazaar

“With its unconventional heroine and unflinching portrayal of an abuse victim's struggle to save herself, My Absolute Love seems destined to become the book of the year.” - The New York Times

"A gripping read, written in beautiful, raw prose. My Absolute Love is a great American novel for our increasingly isolationist, fractured, and disillusioned contemporary age." - Financial Times

“The must-read novel of the year... Tallent makes an old story—a coming-of-age drama—feel fresh and full of youthful power.” - The Times

“A fiery novel, with an extraordinary and unforgettable heroine, deeply contemplative and utterly electrifying.” - The Guardian