Perhaps part of the reason children so freely create imaginary worlds is that they lack the experience that tells them what is normal. Offill's writing is both lyrical and understated. She studied creative writing at Stanford University, and her experience in San Francisco writing multimedia science trivia became part of her work on the book. Now 30, she is being compared to Mona Simpson and Marilynne Robinson, and no doubt will be hailed as one of the best debut novelists of the year.
Grace is the only child of two smart and oddball parents.
Anna, meanwhile, works with endangered birds and is fascinated with both the physics of creation and the African myths she whispers in her daughter's ear. We first glimpse Anna's obsessive and unreliable tendencies when she describes the monster she saw in a nearby lake. She confides her affection for the monster, wrapped up with memories of an old lover, to her young daughter. Later, she takes her daughter swimming in the same lake at night. Offill has drawn a child character as complex as any adult, one without an ounce of cute.