Marcelo Sandoval hears music no one else can hear - part of the autism-like impairment no doctor has been able to identify and he's always attended a special school where his differences have been protected. But the summer after his junior year, his father demands that Marcelo work in his law firm's mailroom in order to experience "the real world." There Marcelo meets Jasmine, his beautiful and surprising coworker, and Wendell, the son of another partner in the firm.

He learns about competition and jealousy, anger and desire. But it's a picture he finds in a file - a picture of a girl with half a face - that truly connects him with the real world: its suffering, its injustice, and what he can do to fight.

Reminiscent of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" in the intensity and purity of its voice, this extraordinary novel is a love story, a legal drama, and a celebration of the music each of us hears inside.

BiographyFrancisco X. Stork

Francisco X. Stork was born in Monterrey, Mexico, and moved to the United States when he was nine. He studied Latin American literature at Harvard before completing a law degree at Columbia University. Publishers Weekly praised his first novel, The Way of the Jaguar, as "a splendidly intense debut." His second book, Behind the Eyes, was selected as both a Commended title for the Americas Award and a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age.

Francisco works as an attorney for an affordable-housing agency in Massachusetts. He lives near Boston with his wife.