Girls in the Moon

Sisters Luna and Phoebe Ferris are struggling under the personal and professional disappointments of their rock-star parents, Meg and Kieran, of the defunct band Shelter. The girls’ mother, Meg, long ago took herself out of the spotlight, refusing to let her daughters grow up in the media’s eye, and turning her focus to sculpture. In a moody and reflective fiction debut, McNally follows Phoebe as she heads from upstate New York to Brooklyn to visit older sister Luna, who is on the cusp of fame and about to go on tour with her band, interspersing briefer chapters that flash back to various points during the 1990s and 2000s when their mother was in love, pregnant with each girl, and deciding whether to leave their father. As Phoebe falls for a boy in Luna’s band and reconnects with their estranged father, Luna and Meg try to allow the youngest member of the family to find her own way. McNally is a polished storyteller, her prose alive with vivid descriptions, the excitement of romance, and an artist’s yearning to create. Ages 13–up. Agent: Jay Mandel, William Morris Endeavor. (Nov.)