A runaway. A race-car champion. A secret that could change both their lives.
Summer, 1957.
Fourteen-year-old Sandy Turner disappears from her Kansas hometown with one destination in mind: the dirt-track racing circuit. In her suitcase she carries a stack of hidden scrapbooks-yellowed newspaper clippings about Frank Haggard, a rising stock-car driver she believes may be her real father. Frank thinks the girl claiming to be his daughter is just another racing fan acting on a dare.
But Sandy knows things about his past no stranger should know.
With the first-ever Grand National Championship only days away and the car owner insisting on a publicity stunt that could endanger other drivers, Frank has no time for family drama. But when Sandy's determined aunt Maggie arrives to take her home, old secrets are exposed, old wounds reopen, and when the car owner hires a younger driver, Frank and Maggie strike a desperate bargain:
Maggie's savings for a replacement ride, but if Frank wins he will give up any claim to the girl who might prove to be his daughter.
Set against the roar of 1950s dirt tracks and the restless energy of rock-and-roll America, Trophy Girl is a sweeping coming-of-age novel about identity, ambition, and the families we fight to claim.
