Sara Hosey

It’s 1992. Leaving home hasn’t solved Iphigenia Murphy’s problems–she suspects it’s really just a matter of time before they’ll catch up with her.  Iffy is searching for her long-lost mother, and urban camping in a Queens park is safer than living at home. Iffy discovers her own resourcefulness living in the park, where she makes progress in the search for her mother, fights off would-be attackers, finds a dog, makes a friend, and even meets a boy.  It all threatens to fall apart, however, and not just because Iffy and her friends face the daily dangers of life as runaways. 

A novel that explores the sustaining power of friendship, Iphigenia Murphy captures the grittiness and splendor of 1990’s Queens, the most diverse borough in New York City during a decade of transition. Like Iffy, the people she connects to in the park—Corinne, a trans woman also escaping abuse and Anthony, a former foster kid from upstate—each seek a place where they can feel at home in the world. In this self-created community, Iffy begins to truly open up for the first time, but she still has difficulty facing the effects of abandonment and abuse. Yet during this remarkable journey to find her mother, Iffy ultimately finds herself.

COMING MARCH 2020.

BLACKSTONE PUBLISHING.