EVEN IN PARADISE

Gorgeously written and poignant in its portrayal of too-brief doomed friendships and loves, Even in Paradise evokes Brideshead Revisited with a nod to The Great Gatsby, reinvented with a teenage cast.

Even in Paradise is the story of 17 year-old Charlotte "Charlie" Ryder, a girl from a working class family whose talent for the arts has gained her entry into the exclusive St. Anne's school, where she meets and gets pulled into the scandalous circle of-the larger-than-life Julia Buchanan, a senator's daughter whose famous but tragic family contains echoes of the Kennedys. Chelsey Philpot is a book review editor at School Library Journal and a contributing writer for the Boston Globe. Like her character Charlie, Chelsey attended boarding school in New England before earning a degree in English from Vassar College and a master's in Journalism from Boston University. She lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn.