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Praise for MATHILDA SAVITCH
“ ‘I want to be awful. I want to do awful things and why not?’ So says the young heroine of Mathilda Savitch, Victor Lodato’s fierce and funny debut novel. What makes this coming-of-age story so compelling is the tough, furtively loving voice of its narrator, who keeps her friends at arm’s length even as she holds them in her heart.”
“This is a delight and a devil of a book, a tale that fills you with despair and pleasure—often at the same time.”
“There cannot be a recent portrait of downbeat, defiant adolescence that is as convincing as that of Lodato's eponymous anti-heroine … Witty and bold, Mathilda forms a teasing, conspiratorial relationship with the reader … The joy of this book is not so much the plot as its spot-on realisation of the wilfulness, pitiless boredom and entrancing nature of girlhood, the aching question of ‘What will happen, who will you become?’ ”
Not since Sebold's Susie Salmon (The Lovely Bones) has there been a young woman whose attitude towards death and its effect on the living had such potential for beguiling readers of all ages. Lodato indelibly captures the fragile vulnerability and fearless bravado of adolescence through Mathilda's impeccable voice, one that rages with alienation, frustration, and confusion as much as it aches with hope, wonder, and desire. A phenomenal debut.
“Compulsively readable .. this portrait of a damaged but hopeful girl stands up to classics like Walter Tevis’ Queen’s Gambit (1983) … Both mature adolescents and adult readers will find much to love in Lodato’s remarkable creation.”
“Have you met Mathilda? If not, prepare to be – in equal measures – charmed and haunted. Because once you get this precocious teen’s sad, sharp voice in your head, it’s hard to get it out … a darkly humorous, aching tale of adolescence.”
“Mathilda Savitch is a hilarious, self-deprecating, and outrageously open-hearted creation—an oracle struggling to understand her own proclamations. Mathilda’s cluelessness and brilliance are captured in a language so true, it will make you feel like you are right back in the madness and squalor that is the schoolyard. And you will be forced to confront, once again, the truth that all adolescents grapple with, that the lunatics have indeed taken over the asylum.”
"Engaging and humorous yet grappling with serious issues."