Victor Lodato

Mathilda investigates her older sister's shattering death and learns perplexing truths when she accesses her sister's computer journals and reads about a secret underworld life.

A Novel

Mathilda Savitch

A CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR BEST BOOK OF 2009A BOOKLIST BEST BOOK OF 2009A GLOBE AND MAIL BEST BOOK OF 2009 Fear doesn’t come naturally to Mathilda Savitch. She prefers to look right at the things nobody else can bear to mention: for example, the fact that her beloved older sister is dead, pushed in front of a train by a man still on the loose. Her grief-stricken parents have basically been sleepwalking ever since, and it is Mathilda’s sworn mission to shock them back to life. Her strategy? Being bad. Mathilda decides she’s going to figure out what lies behind the catastrophe. She starts sleuthing through her sister’s most secret possessions—e-mails, clothes, notebooks, whatever her determination and craftiness can ferret out. But she must risk a great deal—in fact, she has to leave behind everything she loves—in order to discover the truth. Startling, funny, touching, odd, truthful, page-turning, and, in the end, heartbreaking, Mathilda Savitch is an extraordinary debut.

Tanner Evans

This novel is unlike anything I've ever read. Mathilda is such a unique character and I was hanging on to every word she said. I was hooked from the first page. There were lines and paragraphs where I just had to stop reading and take a moment to appreciate how wonderful they were, whether it was graphic or heartfelt or just so candid. Yes. That's what this book was. Candid. I've never read a book where the child was so candid about her thoughts and feelings; she didn't care whether or not it was inappropriate, if it was on her mind she was going to say it. You go through this journey of grief and self-discovery with Mathilda. I love how even though she is a young character, her thoughts aren't young. I mean in the sense that as adults, we sometimes see children as being innocent and naive to the world around them, but Mathilda is so smart and has thoughts that I can remember having at her age. It is a wonderful read.

Mathilda Savitch A Novel

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