"This debut novel--told in interviews--spans 20 years in the rise and fall of the charismatic leader of a seductive self-help movement. In the 1990s, a talk show host leads the 'personality movement,' an integrative approach to radical self-transformation. Mayah, the movement's architect and celebrity advocate, adopts a curious, wild child named Masha Isle. A guinea-pig for the movement, and the key to its future, Isle is the subject of the eight interviews that comprise this book. As the interviewer's objectivity disintegrates--even as the movement's legitimacy becomes increasingly suspect--he becomes obsessed with Masha. And all of that is thrown into question when tragedy strikes"-- Provided by publisher.
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