Capture the Flag

From a New York Times notable author, a heart-wrenching first novel about a young girl's coming of age in the chaotic world of 1970s New York City, where the once-clear lines between parenthood and childhood become blurred.

Annie's and Justin's families had been meeting once a year to play Capture the Flag ever since Annie was six years old, which was as far back as she could remember....The game was played on the two big fields above the house, with the driveway for the borderline. The flags were actually two large white T-shirts, hidden early in the day. Each team was allowed to hide its flag without being spied on; Luke and Peter were very strict about that. To win, the flag had to be found, captured, and brought back over the border to home territory.

It is the summer of 1972 when eleven-year-old Annie blackens her eyelids and cheeks with grease-paint camouflage for her first mission. The flag is under heavy guard, but Annie would do anything for the game, and her scouting partner, Justin -- more self-assured at fourteen than Annie believes she will ever be -- has to admit that Annie is tough, even for a city kid. That night, as they rush through the darkness on their dangerous reconnaissance, something happens between them that changes everything. "Now we've both done something we can't tell," Justin warns her, and even in the thrill of the chase Annie knows they will never speak of it again.

So begins Capture the Flag, a novel about the perils of coming of age when life is coming apart. Back in New York City that fall, the difficult lessons of divorce and depression send Annie reeling. Why, she wonders, do the adults around her break all the rules? But just as she seems to be losing the only family she's ever known, Annie joins forces with her longtime opponents in Capture the Flag. The fact that Tessa, Liz, and Sam -- the sophisticated Shanlick sisters -- live downtown is emblematic of their penchant for living beyond their years, and in their company Annie finds herself growing up fast.

When the teenagers believe they have secrets no adult would ever understand, Annie's newfound maturity is sorely tested. They plan a retreat into the world of their childhood, back to the playing fields of Capture the Flag. "You're coming, aren't you?" Justin challenges, and Annie is caught up in the game all over again.