Description: In a "mix of crime and memoir" ("San Francisco Chronicle"), Smith articulates with great humor and poignancy the wild jubilance of her extended French-Italian family struggling to survive in a post-World War II housing project in Connecticut. In the background is the sinister shadow of an approaching serial killer who forever alters the landscape of her childhood.
Brief description: Mary-Ann Tirone Smith is the author of eight novels. She has lived all her life in Connecticut, except for two years when she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon.
Review Quotes: "Like David Lynch's Blue Velvet, Girls of Tender Age peers into the dark spaces between the streetlights in a quiet residential neighborhood. Something sinister lurks just off the page, and it creeps closer and closer until the memoir's two story lines twist together. . . . Smith's deadpan delivery and comedic timing give the narrative spark." -- The New York Times Book Review