Wintergirls is a powerful but intimate story of one girl's chilling descent into the all-consuming vortex of anorexia. Lia and Cassie were best friends. But something went wrong and Cassie changed. Now Cassie is dead and Lia has thirty-three unanswered calls on her phone, thirty-three messages from her ex-best friend, all sent the day she died. How did she die? Why did she cut herself off? While Lia searches for answers, she drives herself relentlessly on her own path to destruction: to be thin, strong, in control. And completely empty. Laurie Halse Anderson is the author of several books for young adults, including the New York Times bestselling novel Speak. She is the recipient of the prestigious ALAN Award (2008), which honours those who have made outstanding contributions to the field of adolescent literature. Laurie Halse Anderson lives in northern New York State with her husband. textpublishing.com.au 'Beautiful, heartbreaking and hopeful. Lia's voice is exquisite.' Melina Marchetta 'A devastating portrait of the extremes of self-deception...Laurie Halse Anderson illuminates a dark but utterly realistic world.' Booklist 'Tragic, brutal and true. I wanted to hug Lia, and then shake her, and then hug her again. This is a story that's so hard to tell well. Laurie Halse Anderson has nailed it.' Alyssa Brugman