Summer Crossing by Truman Capote

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Summer Crossing
160 pages; Modern Library
This novel is about a young woman who carries on a doomed affair with a parking lot attendant. Johansson loved Capote's reflective portrayal of "two people desperately in love in that frenzied first-love kind of way. Maybe because Capote struggled with his own identity early on, he developed more perspective on growing up."
— As told to Karen Holt