Taut, tense, and emotionally charged…
Luxenburg’s compelling coming-of-age novel dives deep into the complexities of trauma, resilience, and the painful loneliness of being different. Fanny Berk, 15, is a karate student, a self-taught intellectual trapped in a stifling high school system, a devoted reader of Jane Austen, and a girl whose past has taught her to stay invisible at all costs. When she intervenes to stop a brutal attack on a classmate, she lands in the crosshairs of a ruthless criminal network—and into the deadliest fight of her life.
Trauma lives in the edges of every scene, but Luxenburg handles it with an unflinching, unsentimental touch. Fanny’s story unfolds in jagged moments: silent acts of rebellion, explosive karate matches, almost-imperceptible cracks in her emotional armor. Like the practice of karate itself, the novel is clean, fast, and devastating. Luxenburg’s prose moves with precision, embedding moments of aching humor inside lines that often feel like punches to the gut. The structure is tight, the pacing relentless, but it’s the small, searing observations—on fear, on invisibility, on unexpected loyalty—that linger long after the final page. A stunner.
Pub date April 21, 2025
Catalyst Ember Press LTD.
ISBN 978-1069284822
Price $24.99 (USD) Hardcover, $12.99 Paperback, $0.00 Kindle edition
