{"product_id":"the-talkfunny-girl-a-novel","title":"The Talk-Funny Girl: A Novel","description":"\u003cp\u003eA 2012 ALEX Award Winner  In one of the poorest parts of rural New Hampshire  teenage girls have been disappearing  snatched from back country roads  never to be seen alive again. For seventeen-year-old Marjorie Richards  the fear raised by these abductions is the backdrop to what she lives with her own home  every day. Marjorie has been raised by parents so intentionally isolated from normal society that they have developed their own dialect  a kind of mountain hybrid of English that displays both their ignorance of and disdain for the wider world. Marjorie is tormented by her classmates  who call her \"The Talk-funny girl \" but as the nearby factory town sinks deeper into economic ruin and as her parents fall more completely under the influence of a sadistic cult leader  her options for escape dwindle. But then  thanks to a loving aunt  Marjorie is hired by a man  himself a victim of abuse  who is building what he calls \"a cathedral \" right in the center of town.  Day by day  Marjories skills as a stoneworker increase  and so too does her intolerance for the bitter rules of her family life. Gradually  through exposure to the world beyond her parents wood cabin thanks to the kindness of her aunt and her boss  and an almost superhuman determination  she discovers what is loveable within herself. This newfound confidence and self-esteem ultimately allows her to break free from the bleak life she has known  to find love  to start a family  and to try to heal her old  deep wounds without passing that pain on to her husband and children.  By turns darkly menacing and bright with love and resilience  The Talk-Funny Girl is the story of one young womans remarkable courage  a kind of road map for the healing of early abuse  and a testament to the power of kindness and love.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44977584668725,"sku":"ByrdShop_030745293X","price":23.88,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780307452931.jpg?v=1770891214","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-talkfunny-girl-a-novel","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}