American Mermaid

Broke English teacher Penelope Schleeman is as surprised as anyone when her feminist novelAmerican Mermaidbecomes a best-seller. Lured by the promise of a big payday, she quits teaching and moves to L.A. to turn the novel into an action flick with the help of some studio hacks. But as she’s pressuredto change her main character from a fierce, androgynous eco-warrior to a teen sex object in a clamshell bra, strange things start to happen. Threats appear in the screenplay; siren calls lurePenelopes co-writers into danger. IsPenelopelosing her mind, or has her mermaid come to life, enacting revenge for Hollywoods violations?

AmericanMermaidfollows a young woman braving the casual slights and cruel calculations of a ruthless industry town, where she discovers a beating heart in her own fiction, a mermaid who will fight to move between worldswithoutgiving up her voice. A hilarious story about deep things,American Mermaidasks how far well go to protect the parts of ourselves that are not for sale.

Hardcover, March 21st 2023