Life Is Funny

From the outside, they're simply a group of urban teenagers. But from the inside, they're some of the most complex people you'll ever meet. There's Eric, fiercely protective of his brother Mickey-but he has a secret that holds together his past and future. Sonia, struggling to live the life of a good Muslim girl in a foreign America. Gingerbread and Keisha, who fall in love despite themselves. Life Is Funny strips away the defenses of one group of teenagers living today, right now-and shows their unbearably real lives.

"First novelist Frank breaks new ground with a realistic, lyrical novel about eleven teens in Brooklyn now . . . Their talk is painful, rough, sexy, funny, fearful, furious, gentle. Each chapter, each vignette within a chapter, builds to its own climax, and the stories weave together to surprise you." (Booklist, starred review)

"An astounding first effort." (Kirkus Reviews, pointer review)E. R. Frank is an author, psychotherapist, and social worker. A native of Richmond, Virginia, Frank attended Vassar College, Hunter Graduate School of Social Work, and New York's Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy. She is the author of five novels: Life Is Funny, Dime, America, Wrecked, and Friction. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and two children.