New Book by Bronwen Hruska

Right before Reunion, I learned that Bronwen Hruska is about to publish a new book.  I added to the magical "wheel of books" on the right hand side.  Here is a little bit more information about the book:

“Bronwen Hruska's Accelerated is a smart, sexy thriller balanced on top of a real-life horror story: the irresponsible over-medication of our children by our schools." (Madison Smartt Bell, author of The Color of Night)

“A fast-paced, crystal-clear, and funny exploration of a subject that, thanks to Hruska, can finally be openly talked about. A kind of Kramer v. Kramer meets Erin Brokovich in a dark dystopia with baby pharmaceuticals packed in lunch boxes set in the most treacherous world there is: New York City private schools.” (Jennifer Belle, author of High Maintenance and The Seven Year Bitch )

A single dad and his son discover what lies beneath the gilded facade of a tony Upper East Side private school—an endemic of over-medicated children 

            Every afternoon Sean Benning picks up his son, Toby, on the marble steps that lead into the prestigious Bradley School.  Everything at Bradley is accelerated-3^rd graders read at the 6^th grade level, they have labs and facilities to rival most universities, and the chess champions are the bullies. A single dad and struggling artist, Sean sticks out like a sore thumb among the power-soccer-mom cliques and ladies-who-lunch that congregate on the steps every afternoon.  But at least Toby is thriving and getting the best education money can buy.  Or is he?

            When Sean starts getting pressure from the school to put Toby on medication for ADD, something smells fishy, and it isn't the caviar that was served at last week's PTA meeting. Toby's "issues" in school seem, to Sean, to be nothing more than normal behavior for an eight-year-old boy. But maybe Sean just isn't seeing things clearly, which has been harder and harder to do since Toby's new teacher, Jess, started at Bradley. And the school has Toby's best interests at heart, right? But what happens when the pressure to not just keep up, but to exceed, takes hold? When things take a tragic turn, Sean realizes that the price of this accelerated life is higher than he could have ever imagined. 

Bronwen Hruska, the publisher of Soho Press, has worked as a journalist and screenwriter for twenty years. Her articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, More Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Cosmopolitan, the Village Voice, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She has sold an original screenplay to Columbia Pictures and original television pilots to NBC, CBS, Lifetime, and Sony television. She lives in Manhattan with her two sons. Accelerated is her first novel. It will be published by Pegasus Books October 2012.