The Center of the World

Seventeen-year-old Phil relates the events of his tumultuous childhood in a provincial German town in this sophisticated story about love and longing, secrets and betrayal. In the gripping opening scene, Phil and his twin, Dianne, are born on a snow-covered path when their teenage American mother, Glass, goes into labor while trying to reach her sister's house. The sister is dead. The house, named ""Visible"" for its perch overlooking the town, now belongs to Glass. Glass's outsider status makes her fodder for gossip among the townsfolk (Phil disdainfully calls them ""Little People""). Glass's promiscuity makes her notorious; the list of those she's slept with numbers 50, with dates next to the names (Phil figures out Number Three is the twins' father). As the ""whore's children,"" the twins are ostracized, until Dianne definitively fends off some bullies, and her brother joins her. Phil, who recognizes at a young age that he's attracted to men, is refreshingly unconflicted about his sexuality, as is Glass, who hires a male prostitute as Phil's birthday present. He falls hard for a handsome track star, a clearly doomed relationship that ends with Phil acting on his realization that even the panoramic view from Visible isn't wide enough for him. The author introduces big ideas onto this small-town canvas, and the characters and events may well be absorbing to readers in the same way that the goings-on of Phil's family enthrall the neighbors. Ages 14-up.