Laura Marello is the author of Claiming Kin, The Tenants of the Hotel Biron, Balzac's Robe, The Gender of Inanimate Objects and Other Stories, and several other books. She is the recipient of numerous prestigious arts grants. She resides in Lynchburg, VA

Maniac Drifter is a first-rate novel, stylistically alive to the sounds, smells, and sights of unorthodox Provincetown in the 1980s. Marello's new novel shows Provincetown's carnival mindset, disguises, and everyday theater, and forgiveness that shames much of conventional America. The book is rich with the backdrop of Provincetown's history as a fishing community, and artists' community. The young heroine is the witness; her vision is vicarious. She suffers a specific amnesia, which forms the deep mystery of the novel. She is also involved with the central "crime" of the novel that seeks resolution. What she will not remember leaves her non-judgmental but in pain. Only the townspeople in Provincetown can help, almost allowing her to love again, leaving the reader to hope that she will, someday. What a very fine writer, and explorer of people and place we have in Laura Marello! - Paul Nelson, author of Burning the Furniture