NYMPH

Young adult novelist Block (“I Was a Teenage Fairy, ” 1998) moves into the adult market in a series of unusual tales tied together by lyrical sex.

Francesca Lia Block’s edgy tales of the Los Angeles dreamscape that is ‘Shangri-L.A.’ have thrilled millions of readers and literary critics alike. The author of Weetzie Bat, Dangerous Angels, The Rose and the Beast, and several other best-selling books here brings her sensual, dream-like fantasies full circle with this erotic work for adult readers, NYMPH.

As in her other works, Block weaves together themes of subtle magic, youthful hopes, modern urban decay, and deep emotion, told with lyrical storybook language.The stories in NYMPH bear all the hallmarks of classic Francesca Lia Block–punk spirited characters who celebrate love, life, and art– with one important different: this time the author carries her vision through the full range of emotion and erotic interaction that her mature audience appreciates.

An interconnected series of stories, NYMPH is a special journey through the lives and loves of characters like Plum, a Crayon-haired girl who has a gift: if she makes love with a person, that person will then meet their true love, or Tom, a burned out surfer whose luck changes when he is rescued by a mysterious, wheelchair-bound woman, or Sylvie, a chronically depressed poet who finds beauty in unexpected places. Block’s erotic explorations of these smoky, kaleidoscopic fables are anything but conventional; these are stories of love, loss, and life, about the healing power of sex and bonding.