Sarah: A Novel

National Bestseller

Featuring a foreword by Billy Corgan

“JT LeRoy’s masterful imagination, command of story, and easy sense of the mythological are a rare combination that demands attention.” — Toronto Star

Sarah never admits that she’s his mother, but the beautiful boy has watched her survive as a “lot lizard”: a prostitute working the West Virginia truck stops. Desperate to win her love, he decides to surpass her as the best and most famous lot lizard ever. With his own leather mini-skirt and a makeup bag that closes with Velcro, the young “Cherry Vanilla” embarks on a journey through the Appalachian wilds, dining on transcendental cuisine, supplicating to the mystical Jackalope, encountering the most terrifying of pimps, walking on water, being venerated as an innocent girl saint—and then being denounced as the devil.

By turns exhilarating and shocking, magical and realistic, Sarah brings urgency, wit, and imagination to an unknown and unforgettable world.

Sarah never admits that she’s his mother, but the beautiful boy has watched her survive as a “lot lizard”: a prostitute working the West Virginia truck stops. Desperate to win her love, he decides to surpass her as the best and most famous lot lizard ever. With his own leather mini-skirt and a makeup bag that closes with Velcro, the young “Cherry Vanilla” embarks on a journey through the Appalachian wilds, dining on transcendental cuisine, supplicating to the mystical Jackalope, encountering the most terrifying of pimps, walking on water, being venerated as an innocent girl saint—and then being denounced as the devil. By turns exhilarating and shocking, magical and realistic, Sarah brings urgency, wit, and imagination to an unknown and unforgettable world.

“Wildly imagined, but described with a quiet sureness Sarah’s considerable originality testify to LeRoy’s wonderful ability to make up beautiful things.” - Village Voice

“JT LeRoy’s masterful imagination, command of story, and easy sense of the mythological are a rare combination that demands attention.” - Toronto Star

“Quick, lively, and fascinating.” - BookForum

“Edgy but thoroughly...larger than life...comically Dickensian.” - San Francisco Chronicle

“Genuinely moving.” - Publishers Weekly