CARTWHEEL

Upmarket psychological crime with a strong commercial appeal. It will appeal to readers of Emma Donoghue, Ann Patchett, Curtis Sittenfeld, Adam Johnson, and Donna Tartt. An American foreign exchange student arrested for murder; a father navigating the labyrinths of an unfamiliar legal system while trying to hold his family together; the mysterious young man who claims to have slept through the killing; and a prosecutor in search of justice and his estranged wife.

When Lily Hayes arrives in Buenos Aires for her semester abroad, she is enchanted by everything she encounters: the colors, the street food, the handsome, elusive guy next-door. Her studious roommate Katy is a bit of a bore, but Lily didn't come to Argentina to hang out with another American anyway. Five weeks later, Katy is found brutally murdered in their shared home, and Lily is the prime suspect. Who is Lily Hayes? Amoral, hypersexual, unstable--a killer? Or simply young, a little self-centered, trapped in a legal system she was too naïve to take seriously? In the harrowing days that follow, these two versions of the 21-year old struggle for prominence in the media, in the evidence, and even in the corners of her supporters' minds. As the case takes shape - a love triangle, DNA, a flimsy alibi - her family, lover, and prosecutor (and readers themselves) must decide what kind of person they believe Lily Hayes to be.

CARTWHEEL is a novel of riveting psychological suspense and rare emotional insight that will haunt you long after the last page. It also raises profound moral questions about how we decide what to believe about others, and ourselves.

Jennifer duBois's A PARTIAL HISTORY OF LOST CAUSES, was one of the most acclaimed debuts of 2012. It was a finalist for the Pen/Hemingway Prize for Debut Fiction and the National Book Foundation named her one of its 5 Under 35 Authors. O, The Oprah Magazine chose it as one of the ten best books of the year. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, duBois was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford, where she now teaches. The author is twenty-nine years old and we are honored to be publishing this young talented artist