A Gate at the Stairs

''You can sit back and have the time of your life reading A Gate at the Stairs.'' Observer
¿One of the funniest writers alive¿ Dave Eggers
¿Hilarious and distressing, entertaining and wise'' Roddy Doyle
''Moore¿s a writer you don¿t quit.¿ Guardian

***SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORANGE PRIZE FOR FICTION***

A startlingly funny, inventive novel from one of America''s most brilliant writers.

With America quietly gearing up for war in the Middle East, twenty-year-old Tassie Keltjin, a ''half-Jewish'' farmer''s daughter from the plains of the Midwest, has come to university - escaping her provincial home to encounter the complex world of culture and politics.

When she takes a job as a part-time nanny to a couple who seem at once mysterious and glamorous, Tassie is drawn into the life of their newly-adopted child and increasingly complicated household. As her past becomes increasingly alien to her - her parents seem older whe