Down on the South Beach Drag

"Glitter and grit . . . a steaming--and unforgettable--summer of initiation."--James M. Tabor, O. Henry Award winner and author of Blind Descent

"Quirky characters, unpredictable twists, a beautiful love story, and even an appearance by Bruce Springsteen . . . A joy to read!"--Jacqueline Friedland, USA Today best-selling author of He Gets That From Me

1972, Jersey's Asbury Park. One red-headed girl with a camera, one washed-up old seaside resort, ninety days to decide whether she leaves . . . or finally belongs.

Eighteen-year-old Maeve O'Connor has one way out of her strict Irish-Catholic home: win a statewide photo contest and bolt for art school in Manhattan. She stakes everything on one restless summer in weather-worn Asbury Park, a boardwalk alive with sideshow performers, flickering neon lights, and bar bands chasing their break.

Maeve's lens, and her pulse, lock onto Georgie, a singer in midnight eyeliner whose voice rattles the plywood walls and refuses every label the town tries to stamp on him. Through Georgie she finds a community of carnival artists, stage performers and night-shift musicians who treat one another like family because the world won't.

But rumors spread fast in Asbury Park. Scathing newspaper headlines branding her a "Lewd Voyeur," church busybodies judging her, and Maeve's own parents tugging her home.