When she was only twenty-three, CarsonMcCullers's first novel created a literary sensation. Shewas very special, one of America's superlativewriters who conjures up a vision of existence asterrible as it is real, who takes us on shatteringvoyages into the depths of the spiritual isolationthat underlies the human condition. This novel isthe work of a supreme artist, Carson McCullers'senduring masterpiece. The heroine is the strangeyoung girl, Mick Kelly. The setting is a smallSouthern town, the cosmos universal and eternal.The characters are the damned, the voiceless, therejected. Some fight their loneliness withviolence and depravity, Some with sex or drink, and some-- like Mick -- with a quiet, intensely personalsearch for beauty. From the Paperback edition.