cover image The Queen of October

The Queen of October

Shelley Fraser Mickle. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, $8.95 (320pp) ISBN 978-1-56512-003-7

This perceptive and promising coming-of-age tale fondly evokes small-town life in the '60s; its focus is on 13-year-old Sally, who falls in love with an older, alcoholic man and befriends a striptease artist. (May)