True Story

June 1, 2020
In Perry’s captivating debut, 30-something ghostwriter Alice Lovett is haunted by what happened at a lacrosse party 16 years earlier in a Baltimore suburb. In 1999, Nick Brothers and his high school lacrosse team are known for their legendary post-championship parties, usually followed by a midnight recap at their favorite Denny’s. After one party his senior year, Nick shows up at Denny’s with his crush Haley Moreland just in time to catch two of his teammates bragging about what they did with a passed out private school girl—whom the reader eventually learns is Alice—in the back of one of their cars. The facts of what happened that night morph as the story spreads through their suburban community, and the consequences will shape Alice, Haley, Nick, and his teammates over the following decades. Perry eschews conventional structure, replacing parts of the narrative with drafts of Alice’s college admissions essays, her emails to Haley after an abusive relationship as an adult, and Alice and Haley’s teenage screenplays to incendiary effect, and they mix seamlessly with the nimble prose. Though the plot sometimes wanders, Perry’s page-turner is as sly and devastating as the nature of truth. Agent: Emily Forland, Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Inc.

Three narrators deliver a tremendous performance of Kate Reed Petty's remarkable debut novel about the long-term reverberations of a venomous high school rumor and the power of storytelling to harm and help. Combining multiple genres--thriller, letters, essays, and memoirs--the bulk of the story is carried by Kristen Sieh as Alice, who's spent 15 years trying to figure out what happened to her that night at the lacrosse team party. Alexander Cendese delivers the sections devoted to one of the lacrosse players, Nick, who's since descended into alcoholism. Both narrators seamlessly handle a multiplicity of characters and points of view, keeping listeners rapt. Cassandra Campbell's cameo as Alice's college essay editor is equally powerful. Timely, timeless, and riveting, this is an astonishing listen. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine