Kelly Braffet, author of Save Yourself, on tour August 2013

About Save Yourself

Hardcover: 352 pages

Publisher: Crown (August 6, 2013)

Kelly Braffet’s first two novels, Josie and Jack and Last Seen Leaving, were met with astounding praise: reviewers called her work “rich with suspense…compelling” (New York Times Book Review), “fast-paced and enjoyable” (USA Today), and “wonderfully sick and twisted” (Los Angeles Times). All this and more is true of her latest page turner, SAVE YOURSELF: A Novel (Crown; August 6^th, 2013), a brilliantly layered tale of a group of characters each seeking their own warped version of peace.

SAVE YOURSELF is written in the alternating voices of Patrick Cusimano and Verna Elshere. Patrick works a dead-end job at a convenience store, living in his childhood home with his brother Mike and his brother’s girlfriend Caro, while their father sits in jail, convicted of a hit and run. It took 24 hours for Patrick to turn his father in after discovering evidence that his father had drunkenly killed a six year old boy, and since then Patrick has lost his job, his friends, and his hope for any kind of normal life. Mike blames Patrick for destroying their family, and the rest of the town despises him for not turning his father in sooner. To make matters worse, Patrick suspects he might be in love with Caro, and the tension between them is pushing him to his breaking point.

Meanwhile, Verna has just started high school, where the shadow of her family is threatening to crush her. Her strict fundamentalist upbringing and outspoken minister father have made her the target of a cruel group of classmates who taunt her at every turn. And her older sister, Layla, doesn’t help matters by enthusiastically embracing her role as the school freak. Layla’s circle of friends are the school’s most infamous outcasts, but when they take Verna into their fold, what begins as solace soon leads to something sinister.

Patrick, Verna, and the rest of Braffet’s ensemble cast all find themselves at a crossroads, grappling to find a place in a world that has rejected them. With sharp wit, richly drawn characters, and shocking honesty, Braffet infuses SAVE YOURSELF with a dark, haunting pathos that will stay with you long after the last page.

Advance Praise for SAVE YOURSELF

“Kelly Braffet is the real deal. Save Yourself is an electrifying, tomahawk missile of a thriller with honest-to-God people at its core. It rocks the house.” —Dennis Lehane, author of Live by Night

“Kelly Braffet’s Save Yourself is that rare and beautiful thing—a novel that takes us to dark places not just through vivid storytelling but also through keen emotional force. It’s a tale of damaged families and the perilous weight of the past, and as the action rushes towards its chilling conclusion, you’ll find yourselves breathless, shaken, moved.” —Megan Abbott, author of Dare Me

“Astonishing. Save Yourself goes deep into the hidden and shameful parts of grief, love, and anger, and the reader emerges shaken and grateful on the far end. It’s a lacerating read, and proves that Braffet is a writer in full command of her many, many talents.” —Emma Straub, author of Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures

About Kelly Braffet

Kelly Braffet is the author of Josie and Jack and Last Seen Leaving. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University, where she received her MFA. Kelly lives in upstate New York with her husband, the writer Owen King. Visit her at www.kellybraffet.com; on Twitter @KellyBraffet; or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kellybraffetfiction.