The Summer We Fell Apart: A Novel
by Robin Antalek
Harper Paperbacks. 384 pages, $14.99
THROUGH MOST of her life, protagonist Amy Haas was the dutiful daughter. It was she who welcomed a foreign exchange student into the Haas household the summer before graduation, even though it was obvious that Amy’s mother didn’t want Miriam there. Come to think of it, though, Marilyn didn’t want anyone around, even her children. When she was home—which wasn’t often—Marilyn sat in her room, smoking, leaving her children to raise themselves.
Sixteen months older than Amy, George Haas should have had complete control in his job, but he didn’t. Teaching teenage boys to love literature was hard when hormones, not Salinger, drove the class members to act. But when Asa Malik became a student at the private boys’ school,
