by Emily Barton

This debut novel takes place in what seems to be a long-ago time but is actually the 20th century, in an isolated town somewhere in the British Isles. The town’s primitive customs gradually change and become modernized when an American graduate student comes to town on a research project, startles the populace with her exotic ways (not to mention felt-tip pens and zippers), and falls in love with the narrator’s brother. A New York Times Notable Book for the year 2000.