Dear Digby

An oddball newspaper editor advises eccentric readersand reckons with her own painful past in this psychological thriller Willis Digby is the letters editor at Sis (Sisterhood) magazine, a job that drives her mad. A Miss Lonelyhearts for feminists, Willis plows through correspondence that fluctuates from the predictable, boosterish boilerplate to letters challenging conventional notions of sanity, struggling to find a balance in her selections for publication in the landmark journal. Memorable letters include those from a woman who sprinkles cat food into her husband's breakfast cereal each morning, one from a woman convinced that the man on the label of her cleaning products is harassing her, and endless gender-specific descriptions of peculiar sexual proclivities. As Digby strikes up an unconventional friendship with one of her correspondents, she also confronts a harrowing childhood incident that has come back to haunt her. At once witty and powerful, Dear Digby is a thrilling tragicomedy that explores the shifting borders of the self, or selves, that define individual sanity and conventional thought, and redefine communication among lost souls.