NEW RELEASE
The Fallback Plan - Leigh Stein (2012)
Esther has just completed a degree in film and after having no luck finding a job, she has done what many young adults do - she has gone back home to live while she decides what to do next with her life. Esther takes on a position as a babysitter to May - in the process becoming a friend to the mother Amy and a partner in crime with Amy's husband, Nate. But when her alliances crash, it will be the wake-up call that Esther needs to discover who she really is and what she wants out of life. The Fallback Plan is one girl's journey to self-discovery and along the way she tries her hands at many things as a fallback before the opportunity arises for the perfect job. This is an awesome and fast-paced novel which many teens and early 20-somethings will relate to, nodding and cringing at parts with Esther. (PP)
Leigh Stein's debut novel The Fallback Plan is about one girl who is navigating the treacherous terrain between youth and adulthood. The summary says: "What to do when you've just graduated from college and your plans conflict with those of your parents? That is, when your plans to hang out on the couch, re-read your favourite children's books, and take old prescription tranquilisers, conflict with your parents' plans that you, well, get a job? Without a fallback plan, Esther Kohler decides she has no choice but to take the job her mother has lined up for her: babysitting for their neighbours, the Browns. It's a tricky job, though. Six months earlier, the Browns' youngest child died. Still, as Esther finds herself falling in love with their surviving daughter May, and distracted by a confusing romance with one of her friends, she doesn't notice quite how tricky the job is ... until she finds herself assuming the role of confidante to May's mother Amy, and partner in crime to Amy's husband Nate. Trapped in conflicting roles doomed to collide, Esther is forced to come up with a better idea of who she really is." The Fallback Plan is out in January. Stein writes a Fallback Plan column for The Faster Times.