Fiction. This offbeat debut novel set in an English seaside Bed & Breakfast is a coming of age story focusing on identity, in all its guises. Like many adolescents, fourteen-year-old Matt Bowen has no idea who he is. Desperate for connection and friendship, Bowen embarks on a series of break-ins as he seeks identity and acceptance in a world he never asked to be part of. "Matthew is a wonderful character: young but wise; long-suffering; a survivor. Bullock can be extremely funny (chapter 40), but he sees life in its complexity, so that things that are funny are often tinged with sadness, while serious matters often have an element of slapstick about them. MAKING FACES is a clear-headed book about characters who don't want to reveal themselves, or who want very much to reveal themselves, but wonder where and when and how to begin"--Ann Beattie.

Author City: Athens, OH USA

John Bullock is English and has an MFA in fiction writing from the University of Virginia, where he was a Henry Hoyns fellow. He is managing editor of the New Ohio Review, and lives in Athens, Ohio. Making Faces is his first novel.