Nine-year old Marina swears like a sailor and thinks like a novelist; but that doesn't make growing up any less of a mystery.

While her mother is in the hospital with a grave but unnamed illness; Marina spends the summer with her grandmother; waiting to hear whether she'll ever get to go home or be bundled off; newly orphaned; to a convent school. There are no rules here; but that also means there are no easy ways to fend off the visions of sex and violence that both torment and titillate the girl. Presenting a fresh; vivid take on the coming-of-age novel; Oldladyvoice reimagines childhood through the eyes of its one-of-a-kind; hilarious; perceptive; and endearing narrator.