Alice and Edith are sisters, soul mates, and archenemies. Both are expert manipulators--a power that is tested and exploited when their plane is hijacked. "The Effect of Living Backwards" is a comic, heartbreaking novel for this new and uncertain age.

One Autumn day in 1985, sixteen-year-old Mary Veal vanishes from her Massachusetts prep school. A few weeks later she reappears unharmed and with little memory of what happened to her--or at least little that she is willing to share. Was Mary abducted, or did she fake her disappearance?This question haunts Mary's family, her psychologist, even Mary herself.Weaving together three narratives, The Uses of Enchantment conjures a spell in which the hallucinatory power of a young woman s sexuality, and her desire to wield it, has devastating consequences for all involved."

From acclaimed novelist and editor of The Believer Heidi Julavits, comes a wildly imaginative novel about grief, female rivalry, and the furious power of a daughter's love.
Julia Severn is a talented student at an elite institute for psychics. When Julia's mentor, the legendary Madame Ackerman, grows jealous of her protegee's talents, she subjects Julia to the painful humiliation of reliving her mother's suicide . . . and then launches a desperate psychic attack.
But Julia's gifts, though a threat to her teacher, prove an asset to others. Soon she's recruited to track down a...