Child Ballet Star Publishes First Novel at Age 18

Posted on February 3, 2005

For those parents whose teens are busy scribbling away in journals, a quick read of this Reuters report about a child ballet star who now has her first novel published at the age of 18 may be in order. While miserable at summer camp, 14 year-old Amanda Marquit became inspired to write after reading Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.

Her new novel, Shut the Door (St. Martin's Press) is described as a novel of teen sex and parental neglect. The novel's protagonist, 16-year-old Lilliana, engages in promiscuous behavior and cutting herself with razors, while her 17-year-old sister engages in the love that dare not speak its name and various unmentionable acts in front of an audience.

Miss Marquit and her father, a fund manager, have told reporters over and over that the story is not autobiographical, although the dedication to the book reads: "To Mom, Dad, and Adam, for being the family upon which this book is based -- just kidding."

Such a kidder, that Amanda....