A captivating novel that explores the complexities of social conventions and the desperate yearning for acceptance "An astonishing first novel...uncannily beautiful." — The New York Times Book Review On the privileged island community where Forgetting Elena takes place, manners are everything. Or so it seems to White's excruciatingly self-conscious young narrator who desperately wants to be accepted in this world where everything from one's bathroom habits to the composition of "spontaneous" poetry is subject to rigid conventions.