By Angela Balcita
Harper Perennial | 240pgs
Release Date: February 1, 2011

Summary:
Angela Balcita’s sweet and amusing biography about life and love Moonface: A True Romance, arrives as many minds turn to romance in anticipation of Valentine’s Day. Yet, her story is anything but a fairytale romance. Suffering kidney failure in her late teens, Balcita was already dealing with the complications of her first kidney transplant, donated by her brother, when she met Chris Doyle in her junior year of college. As it became apparent that she would need another kidney, Doyle selflessly volunteered to be a donor, though their relationship was still new. This was the beginning of a deep love affair that has lasted 14 years and produced two-year-old daughter, Nico. “My big feeling was like we were transcending something magical – we were being united. I saw it as very emotional and spiritual, this gift,” Balcita expresses in an interview with USA Today. Doyle, now the author’s husband, has been her champion and cheerleader, helping her through illness and pain (she would eventually need an third transplant), and focusing their lives on a positive future. The couple’s coping mechanism of wit and humor is evident in the books narrative, and helps to craft an inspiring testimony of love’s endurance.

What the critics are saying:
This is Balcita’s first book, which grew out of a piece she wrote for the New York Times “Modern Love” column about her relationship with her husband. Early critical reviews have been enthusiastic about her debut work. A Publishers Weekly review proclaims Moonface to be “a creatively rendered homage to love in its many forms. Whether reflecting on her nomadic postcollege days or her emergency C-section, Balcita balances drama and comedy with finesse.”