Between God and the army, fifteen-year-old Cole Peters has more than enough to rebel against. But this Chaplain’s daughter isn’t resorting to drugs or craziness. Truth to tell, she’s content with her soccer team and her band and her white bread boyfriend.And then, of course, there’s Meghan.Meghan is eighteen years old and preparing for entry into West Point. For this she has sponsors: Cole’s parents. They’re delighted their daughter is finally looking up to someone. Someone who can tutor her and be a friend.But one night that relationship changes and Cole’s world flips.Giraffe People is a potent reminder of the rites of passage and passion that we all endure on our road to growing up and growing strong. Award-winning author Jill Malone tells a story of coming out and coming of age, giving us a take that is both subtle and fresh.

Praise forRed Audrey and the Ropingby Jill Malone:“Luminescent writing. . . . Finely tuned, daring, and perceptive, Malone’s auspicious debut leaves us wanting more.”—Whitney Scott,Booklist“A lyrical, passionate novel about desire, about danger, and about the need for self-forgiveness. A wonderfully impressive writing debut.”—Sarah Waters, author ofTipping the VelvetandThe Night Watch“First-rate writing and characterization.”—Cecelia Martin,Diva“Malone’s nonlinear novel jitterbugs through time and place—the splintered chronology is a rewarding challenge. . . . A dazzling and dramatic debut.”—Richard Labonté, BookMarks/Q SyndicateIn Jill Malone’s second novel,A Field Guide to Deception, nothing is as simple as it appears: community, notions of motherhood, the nature of goodness, nor even compelling love. Revelations are punctured and then revisited with deeper insight, alliances shift, and heroes turn anti-hero—and vice versa.With her aunt’s death Claire Bernard loses her best companion, her livelihood, and her son’s co-parent. Malone’s smart, intriguing writing beguiles the reader into this taut, compelling story of a makeshift family and the reawakening of a past they’d hoped to outrun. Claire’s journey is the unifying tension in this book of layered and shifting alliances.A Field Guide to Deceptionis a serious novel filled with snappy dialogue, quick-moving and funny incidents, compelling characterizations, mysterious plot twists, and an unexpected climax. It is a rich, complex tale for literary readers.Jill Malone’s first novel,Red Audrey and the Roping, won the Bywater Prize for Fiction.About the AuthorJill Malone went to a German kindergarten, grade school in the rural South, middle school in the affluent East, high school and college in Hawaii, and graduate school in the state of Washington. Her first novel, Red Audrey and the Roping won the Bywater Prize for Fiction. Her second novel reflects her interest in mycology. She has a three-year-old son.

“This is a literary gem . . . one of the best books I’ve read this year.”—Ellen Hart"This raw and convincing first novel is narrated by a woman who can’t help testing the limits of her ability to endure pain in her intimate relationships with men and women... the vivid characters and potent emotions keep the pages turning."—The AdvocateOccasionally a debut novel comes along that rocks its readers back on their heels. Red Audrey and the Roping is one of that rare and remarkable breed. With storytelling as accomplished as successful literary novelists like Margaret Atwood and Sarah Waters, Jill Malone takes us on a journey through the heart of Latin professor Jane Elliot.Set against the dramatic landscapes and seascapes of Hawaii, this is the deeply moving story of a young woman traumatized by her mother’s death. Scarred by guilt, she struggles to find the nerve to let love into her life again. Afraid to love herself or anyone else, Jane falls in love with risk, pitting herself against the world with dogged, destructive courage. But finally she reaches a point where there is only one danger left worth facing. The sole remaining question for Jane is whether she is willing to accept her history, embrace her damage, and take a chance on love.As well as a gripping and emotional story, Red Audrey and the Roping is a remarkable literary achievement. The breathtaking prose evokes setting, characters, and relationships with equal grace. The dialogue sparks and sparkles. Splintered fragments of narrative come together to form a seamless suspenseful story that flows effortlessly to its dramatic conclusion.Winner of the Bywater Prize for Fiction, Red Audrey and the Roping is one of the most memorable first novels you will ever read.From BooklistMalone has lived in Hawaii, and in her first novel, the land and sea are as much characters as the heroine, Jane, and her cronies. The loss of her mentally unstable mother to suicide has left this thirtysomething university Latin instructor wracked with guilt, and fleeing the risk of intimacy, although as a long-board surfing enthusiast, she risks the biggest waves. Told from an accident survivor’s viewpoint from a hospital bed, Malone’s tale of love in the tropics is something of a wave itself. Luminescent writing swells with the heady rush of the past, with its rich tapestry of mournful mother yearning, mixed with lush sensuality experienced in the arms of her landlord, Emily; then crashing to an invalid’s grim reality of casts and IV drips. The roping, a linguistic holdover from the heroine’s years in Ireland, refers physically to the ties binding Jane to her sadist male lover, Nick, and figuratively as the entanglement of feelings. Finely tuned, daring, and perceptive, Malone’s auspicious debut leaves us wanting more. --Whitney Scott