"A grieving mother uses her daughter, Nina, as an artistic muse, complicating and ultimately destroying the girl's vulnerable adolescence... Affecting..." - Kirkus Reviews

"An unsettling and acutely sensitive debut." - Booklist

"Very few writers are able to give the period of adolescence the wider resonance of serious adult literature. In Nina: Adolescence, Amy Hassinger does so brilliantly." - Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author

Fifteen-year-old Nina and her family are struggling to hold things together in the wake of the accidental death of her brother several years earlier. Seeking refuge in her art, Nina's mother has painted a series of nude portraits of her remaining child. As these haunting images go public, Nina is forced to deal with her burgeoning sexuality in front of a large and critical audience. With tension in the family at a breaking point, the portrait entitled Nina: Adolescence provokes a situation that will be either the engine of Nina's destruction - or the catalyst that enables her to finally surmount tragedy.

In this mesmerizing first novel, Amy Hassinger captures the cruelties and passions of adolescence with eloquence, tenderness, and a fearless sensuality. In Nina, she has created an unforgettable character - and launched a stunning career.

Amy Hassinger, a resident of Michigan, attended Barnard College and the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop. She has taught writing at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University, and has taught English to both middle school and undergraduate students. In 1994, she received the Peter S. Prescott Prize for Writing and the Writers' Workshop's Joseph E. and Ursil I. Callen Scholarship.

Mia Barron has worked at theatres in New York and around the country including; Playwrights Horizons, Lincoln Center, New York Theatre Workshop, NY Stage Film, Wcstport Playhouse, California Shakespeare Festival, Berkshire Theatre Festival and The Acting Company, among others. Her film and television work include Guiding Light and the soon to be released Amy's Rules. She has an MFA from the graduate Acting School at NYU and lives in New York City.