Swati Avasthi

Split
Knopf, March 2010
young adult, ISBN 978-0375863400

16-year-old Jace Witherspoon arrives at the doorstep of his estranged brother Christian with a re-landscaped face (courtesy of his father’s fist), $3.84, and a secret.
He tries to move on, going for new friends, a new school, and a new job, but all his changes can’t make him forget what he left behind—his mother, who is still trapped with his dad, and his ex-girlfriend who is keeping his secret. At least so far.

Split is about what happens after. After you’ve said enough, after you’ve run, after you’ve made the split. How do you begin to live again?

Swati Avasthi has been writing fiction since she read Little House in the Big Woods at age five. Emily Brontë, Harper Lee, and many others furthered her addiction. She institutionalized her habit at the University of Chicago, where she received her B.A., and at the University of Minnesota, where she is currently studying for her M.F.A. She has received numerous honors, including a Loft’s Mentor Series Award, University of Minnesota’s the Thomas H. Shevlin Fellowship and DeBourg Fellowship. Her short fiction has been nominated for The Best New American Voices and a Pushcart Prize.

Split, (March, Knopf) is her debut novel. Prior to writing Split, Avasthi coordinated a domestic violence legal clinic, where she interviewed thousands of women who were seeking orders of protection.

Her second novel is due out from Knopf in Fall, 2011. She lives with her riotously funny family—two large dogs, two small kids, and one (but worth two) husband(s)—in the Twin Cities.

[Pronunciation guide: Swati Avasthi (SWA-thee of-US-thee)]