The Girls of No Return

by Saldin, Erin

• ISBN13: 9780545310260
• ISBN10: 0545310261
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-02-01
• Publisher: Arthur A. Levine Books

Summary

CUT meets HATCHET in this lacerating debut about girls, knives, and redemption. The Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area stretches across two million acres in northern Idaho. In its heart sits the Alice Marshall School, where fifty teenage girls come to escape their histories and themselves. Lida Wallace has tried to negate herself in every way possible. At Alice Marshall, she meets Elsa Boone, a fierce native Idahoan; Jules, who seems too healthy to belong at the school; and Gia Longchamps, whose glamour entrances the entire camp. As the girls prepare for a wilderness trek, Lida is both thrilled and terrified to be chosen as Gia's friend. But everyone has their secrets--their "Things" they try to protect; and when those come out, the knives do as well. THE GIRLS OF NO RETURN is a bold and powerful debut.

Author Biography

Erin Saldin went on her first backpacking trip in northern Idaho at age fourteen. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times and the Best New American Voices series, as well as multiple literary magazines. She lives in Montana, where she teaches creative writing at the University of Montana-Missoula.

Excerpts

From The Girls of No Return

She took out the underwear, the socks, the rain poncho, the flashlight. She took out first one hiking boot, and then the other. She took out the sock that I had stuffed in the second boot, and pulled out the knife.

A long, silent minute passed.

"We understand that you may have come here with old ways of being, old patterns of behavior, old habits."

Beverly tapped the knife with her index finger without looking down at it.

"Those behaviors that might endanger yourself or others are cause for immediate expulsion."

She held the knife in front of her face and stared at me until I met her gaze. It was unflinching. I nodded.

Beverly placed the knife next to her on the chair and repacked my bag. Then she stood up and held out her hand. "Welcome to Alice Marshall," she said.