Sway

In Kat Spears' hilarious and often poignant debut, high school senior Jesse Alderman or "Sway," as he's known, could sell hell to a bishop. He also specialises in getting things people want, term papers, a date with the prom queen, fake lDs. He has few close friends and he never lets emotions get in the way. For Jesse, life is simply a series of business transactions. But when Ken Foster, football team captain, homecoming king candidate and all-around jerk, hires Jesse to help him win the heart of the angelic Bridget Smalley, Jesse finds himself feeling all sorts of things.

While following Bridget and learning the intimate details of her life, he falls helplessly in love. He also finds himself in an accidental friendship with Bridget's belligerent and self-pitying younger brother who has cerebral palsy. Suddenly, Jesse is visiting old folks at a nursing home in order to run into Bridget and offering his time to help the less fortunate, all the while developing a bond with this young man who idolises him. Could the tin man really have a heart after all?

A Cyrano de Bergerac story with a modern twist, Sway is told from Jesse's point of view with unapologetic truth and biting humor, his observations about the world around him untempered by empathy or compassion, until Bridget's presence in his life forces him to confront his quiet devastation over a life-changing event a year earlier and maybe, just maybe, feel something again.