The Girl, the Gold Tooth, and Everything

Book excerpt: Mina Clark is losing her mind—or maybe it’s already gone. She isn’t quite sure. Feeling displaced in her over-priced McMansion-dotted suburban world, she is grappling not only with deep debt, a mostly absent husband, and her playground-terrorizer 3-year old Emma, but also with a significant amnesia she can’t shake—a “temporary” condition now going on several years, brought on by a traumatic event she cannot remember, and which everyone around her feels is best forgotten. But then a routine trip to the dentist changes everything for Mina, and suddenly she's not sure if what's happening is real, or if she's just now fully losing her mind—especially when she realizes the only person she thought she could trust is the one she fears the most. This latest novel by Francine LaSala (Rita Hayworth’s Shoes) is a fast-paced, richly layered, and darkly humorous satire filled with quirky characters and unforgettable moments of humanity.