Ellis (Swimming with the Whales) explains in an afterword that her novel, about a 16-year-old sent to a sanatorium for tuberculosis in 1945, is closely based on her own experiences. Just as April's beloved father returns from the war and perfects April's rosy life as a star swimmer, aspiring writer and girlfriend of the hunky Mike, labored breathing and high fevers land her in quarantine in a dreary hospital. "The war was over and my father was home, as I'd dreamed, but we only had this one lunch that was normal, because I was a freak, a contagious sick freak." The narrative proves strongest when relating the boredom of life on bed rest, the stigma attached to TB and the relationships between April and her two successive roommates. The focal point, however, is the flirtation between April and Ravi, a fellow patient and son of a maharajah, and it is rarely convincing. Ravi, sender of luxurious gifts and writer of lengthy epistles, seems like a stock romantic hero. April, for example, comments that Ravi's photo shows "full face, brown eyes looking straight into my heart," and his conversation includes lines like, "My beautiful April, our days together here enthrall me so I do not choose to remember my past." Their "romantic friendship" lacks staying power—for them, as it turns out, and probably for readers as well. Ages 12-up. (June)
