This image is the cover for the book This Is All

This Is All

Using a pillow book as her form, nineteen-year-old Cordelia Kenn sets out to write out her life for her unborn daughter. What emerges is a portrait of an extraordinary girl, who writes frankly of love, sex, poetry, nature, faith, and of herself in the world. Her thoughts range widely: on Shakespeare and breasts, periods and piano playing, friendship and trees, consciousness and sleep, and much more besides. As she writes of William Blacklin, the boy she chooses as her first lover, or Julie, the teacher who encourages her spiritual life, Cordelia maddens, fascinates, and ultimately seduces the reader. This is a character never to be forgotten from a writer at the height of his powers.

Aidan Chambers

Aidan Chambers won the highest literary honors for his novel Postcards from No Man’s Land: the Michael L. Printz Award and the Carnegie Medal. He was also awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Prize for his life’s work, and is only the second British writer to receive it. He lives in Gloucester, England, with his American wife, Nancy, who is the editor of Signal magazine. For more information, visit his Web site at www.aidanchambers.com.

Abrams