Broken Like This: A Novel
Kate Harrington possesses fierceness and sensuality as the protagonist of Trasandes’ engaging first novel. The survivor of childhood abuse from a Humbert Humbert–like stepfather, Kate pursues healing through writing an anthropological study of international sex workers. Her book’s title, From the Me Hurt to the Me Healed Generation, shows Trasandes’ ability to use irony without undermining serious subjects. In Kate’s personal life, she moves between two very different lovers—Louis, a friend from adolescence, and Angela, a fellow student from a study-abroad program in Spain. When Kate suffers a serious injury in a car accident in Spain, Louis, Angela, and Kate’s absurdly villainous stepfather all end up in Ibiza, where they must make decisions about their beloved’s fragile future. The novel can be confusing, with frequent shifts in time, place, and point of view, but Kate’s vivid character is an anchor. As Trasandes demonstrates, one of the best ways to honor a person or place is to delight in sensory pleasure. --Carolyn Alessio