Paula Fox is one of the most highly-regarded writers currently working in the United States. Her books for children and young adults are regularly cited for their intelligence, originality and social consciousness. Her adult novels have been praised for their exquisite craftsmanship, keen observations and uncompromising integrity. Critic Irving Howe has written that Desperate Characters is a masterpiece in a major line of American fiction, along with Billy Budd, The Great Gatsby, Miss Lonelyhearts and Seize the Day. Among the awards Fox has received for her work are the Newbery Medal, the Hans Christian Andersen Medal, a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Institute of Arts and Letters Award, and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.

"There are a good many autobiographical details in my books, mostly having to do with place: the Cuban sugar plantation where I spent part of my childhood with my grandmother; Spanish Harlem, where my cousins...