Join us for the launch event for Ginny Moon, the much-anticipated new novel from local author Benjamin Ludwig on Monday, May 1st at 7pm!
Meet Ginny Moon. She's mostly your average teenager--she plays flute in the high school band, has weekly basketball practice, and reads Robert Frost poems in English class.
But Ginny is autistic. And so what's important to her might seem a bit...different: starting every day with exactly nine grapes for breakfast, Michael Jackson, her baby doll, and crafting a secret plan of escape.
After being traumatically taken from her abusive birth mother and moved around to different homes, Ginny has finally found her forever home---a safe place with parents who will love and nurture her. This is exactly what all foster kids are hoping for, right?
But Ginny has other plans. She'll steal and lie and exploit the good intentions of those who love her--anything it takes to get back what's missing in her life. She'll even try to get herself kidnapped.
Told in an extraordinary and wholly original voice, Ginny Moon is at once quirky, charming, heartbreaking, and poignant. It's a story about being an outsider trying to find a place to belong and about making sense of a world that just doesn't seem to add up. Taking you into the mind of a curious and deeply human character, Benjamin Ludwig's novel affirms that fiction has the power to change the way we see the world.
Praise for Ginny Moon:
"There is no guessing where Ginny Moon is going to take us in this page-turning, surprising, funny, heartbreaking, at times disturbing, and ultimately morally complex story. In Ginny's logical yet perplexing mind, it makes sense to try to get kidnapped by her dangerous birth mother. But something much larger is at stake, and we are left with the question-is love unconditional? What makes a good parent? A moving and thought-provoking debut."
-Eowyn Ivey, author of The Snow Child
"If I could ask Ginny Moon one question-and she only does allow one question at a time-it would be what does it feel like to be the heroine of a compulsively readable novel? Benjamin Ludwig does such a wonderful job of conjuring Ginny onto the page and of making us turn those pages at breathless speed. The Original Ginny Moon is a sparkling debut."
-Margot Livesey, author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy
"Ludwig's excellent debut is both a unique coming-of-age tale and a powerful affirmation of the fragility and strength of families.... Ludwig brilliantly depicts the literal-minded and inventive Ginny." -Publishers Weekly, starred review
A life-long teacher of English and writing, Benjamin Ludwig lives in New Hampshire with his family. He holds an MAT in English Education and an MFA in Writing. Shortly after he and his wife married they became foster parents and adopted a teenager with autism. Ginny Moon is his first novel, which was inspired in part by his conversations with other parents at Special Olympics basketball practices. His website is www.benjaminludwig.com.
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