Sunset Terrace

During the summer of 1983, Elaine and her daughters, Hannah and Daisy, move into Sunset Terrace, a squalid, low-rent apartment building in Los Angeles that houses single mothers. They have been on the road for three years, driving from town to town in a flight from tragedy ever since Hannah discovered her father dead in his study. While Elaine struggles to make ends meet and construct a new life for herself in California, Hannah-a shy, lonely girl whose only companion in the shuffle of schools has been her pet turtle-develops an earnest affection for Bridget, a vivacious, foul-mouthed nine-year-old in Apartment One who was abandoned as an infant in a supermarket parking lot. Bridget quickly becomes Hannah's best friend, teaching her how to play tricks and climb a chain-link fence and steal candy. Elaine becomes captivated by Bridget as well, encouraging her to come over for dinners and sleepovers, taking on the role of a surrogate mother. Compelled by pity for the wayward girl, Elaine is blind to Bridget's dangerous influence on Hannah, who at the summer's end takes part in a malicious game that irrevocably alters the course of all of their lives. About the author: Rebecca Donner was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, and received degrees from UC Berkeley and Columbia University. She was the literary director of the Sunday Night Fiction Series at New York City's KGB Bar from 1998 to 2002, and is the editor of On The Rocks: The KGB Bar Fiction Anthology.