All titles by
Amanda Jayatissa
Agent
Melissa Danaczko
My Sweet Girl
Berkley, September 2021
Paloma thought her perfect life would begin once she was adopted and made it to America, but she’s about to find out that no matter how far you run, your past always catches up to you…
Ever since she was adopted from a Sri Lankan orphanage, Paloma has had the best of everything—schools, money, and parents so perfect that she fears she’ll never live up to them.
Now at thirty years old and recently cut off from her parents’ funds, she decides to sublet the second bedroom of her overpriced San Francisco apartment to Arun, who recently moved from India. Paloma has to admit, it feels good helping someone find their way in America—that is until Arun discovers Paloma’s darkest secret, one that could jeopardize her own fragile place in this country.
Before Paloma can pay Arun off, she finds him face down in a pool of blood. She flees the apartment but by the time the police arrive, there’s no body—and no evidence that Arun ever even existed in the first place.
Paloma is terrified this is all somehow tangled up in the desperate actions she took to escape Sri Lanka so many years ago. Did Paloma’s secret die with Arun or is she now in greater danger than ever before?
“My Sweet Girl is like nothing else I’ve read. Set in San Francisco and Sri Lanka, this is a story about friendship, lies, and guilt. A stunning and original must-read!”
—Samantha Downing, USA Today bestselling author of My Lovely Wife
“This breathtaking debut somehow manages to be terrifying and heartbreaking at the same time. Astonishingly crafted and constantly surprising, the talented Jayatissa lures us into the story with confident hands, and then yanks the rug right out from under us. Ridiculously good. Crazy good. Scary good. This is a big big book.”
—Hank Phillippi Ryan, USA Today bestselling author of The First to Lie