One Foot Wrong: A Novel

by Sofie Laguna

Overview

The stars shine brightest out of the deepest dark . . .” A child is imprisoned in a house by her reclusive, religious parents. Hester Wakefield has never spoken to another child, nor seen the outside world. Her one possession is an illustrated children’s Bible, and its imagery forms the sole basis for her capacity to make poetic, real-life connections. Her companions at home are Cat, Spoon, Door, Handle, Broom, and Tree, and they all speak to her, sometimes telling her what to do. One day she takes a brave Alice in Wonderland trip into the forbidden outside, at the behest of Handle, and this overwhelming encounter with light and sky and sunshine is a marvel to her. From this moment on, Hester learns that there are some things she cannot tell her parents, and she keeps this secret to herself. Hester buries it among her other secrets, the ones that take place in the shadowy corners of her insular world, and she keeps them all locked inside her as they multiply and grow, waiting until she can find other ways to be free.

One Foot Wrong challenges the boundaries of right and wrong, sanity and madness, love and justice, poetry and life. The story told by Hester is often dark and harrowing, but the affecting impact of her distinctive voice and her way of seeing the world illuminates every page and makes this novel an exhilarating, enlightening and, ultimately, an uplifting and transformative experience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781590513347
Publisher:	Other Press, LLC
Publication date:	08/18/2009
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Sofie Laguna has previously written for children and young adults, including Surviving Aunt Marsha and Too Loud Lily (Scholastic). She is also an actor. One Foot Wrong is her first adult novel. She lives in Melbourne, Australia.

Read an Excerpt

I slept at the feet of Boot and Sack. My one small bed went longways across the end of their big one. If I turned my head in the night and the moon was shining through, I could see the hill of Boot’s feet beside my face. Sack’s feet I couldn’t see but I knew they were there–no shoes, tipped-over and sleeping. Every night Sack pulled my blankets tight around me, pressing me down. “Lie still, Hester, not a peep from you, not a wriggle.” Every night I lay on my back looking up through the dark at the grey paint cloud, at its cracks in the shapes of wings, and the white curtain sometimes blowing.

Cat was there and together we’d wait for the bird dream. Cat’s bird dream was hiding in the long grass, a fast chase and a jump. In my bird dream everything was white without walls. Bird sang and flew and so did I. Then bird became many birds. Every part of me moved with the many birds–my fingers, hair, and toes all swirled and twirled in bird circles. Which was me and which was bird?

A secret has no sound; it lives in your darkest corner where it sits and waits.
Sometimes it gives a jump or a wriggle but mostly it waits like the spider waits for the fly. A secret grows thick like the ball of web the spider weaves around the fly when he makes the trap. Fly can’t breathe or smell in there–his world sticks against his face, small as his own eyes.

Reading Group Guide

1. Hester makes "friends" with inanimate objects—tree, handle, table, chair, broom, axe, and spoon. What does each of these objects represent to Hester?

2. The only two books Hester is permitted to look at are The Abridged Picture Bible and Illustrated Hymns. Discuss the irony of Katherine ("Sack") and John ("Boot")'s religious nature in light of the way they choose to raise their child.

3. When confronted by government officials, teachers, and medical professionals, Boot and Sack speak of Hester as having mental problems. Did you get the impression that Hester would have been mentally ill had she not been raised in isolation? How do you think Hester's abuse escaped the detection of these professionals?

4. Who is crueler to Hester in your eyes, Boot or Sack? Why? Discuss whether either parent displayed any moments of kindness or remorse for his or her actions. Do you think Sack was aware of Boot's sexual abuse of Hester? If so, why do you think she did not try to put a stop to it?

5. After keeping Hester so hidden away, why does Sack finally take her to meet her grandmother? Mog is delighted to meet Hester and tells Hester that she needs her. In what ways do you suppose this is true? Hester states that she wants to let her secrets out to Mog. Why is Hester so at ease in Mog's presence? Why do you suppose this setting also leads Sack to ultimately open up to Hester about her own childhood abuse?

6. Boot's hobby is building tiny ships in bottles. Discuss the symbolism of this hobby. How does his craft correlate to the way he chooses to raise his daughter?

7. "God the Bird" initially comes to Hester on her first trip to the hanging room and continues to appear to her throughout the book. What is the significance of this imagery?

8. Blackbirds and colored birds appear to Hester at various points throughout the book. What do they represent?

9. When Hester is sent to school, she makes her first real friend Mary. Why were the two girls so drawn to each other? What turns Hester against Mary? How do you presume Mary fares at school after Hester stops attending?

10. When Hester asks, "What is a friend?" God the Bird explains that "a friend gives you pictures." Who gives Hester pictures? What significance do painting and drawing hold for Hester?

11. At Renton Hester meets Norma. Why do you think Hester insists on calling Norma "Mary" at first? How do you explain the deep connection between Norma and Hester?

12. Hester describes the exchange of thoughts she has with Mary and Norma as "traveling down a rope." Why do you suppose human connection manifests itself in such a physical way for Hester?

13. How did Hester's sexual experience with the guard at Renton ("blue shoes") differ from the times she was raped by Boot? What feelings came over Hester during intercourse with blue shoes?

14. Hester begs Norma to take her home. What is Hester's perception of "home" at this point? How does it change once they arrive at One Cott Road? How does it change again at the end of the book when they arrive at Harrison's house?

15. The "Lord of the Dance" hymn comes up several times throughout the book.
Dance, then, wherever you may be;
I am the Lord of the Dance, said he.
And I'll lead you all wherever you may be,
And I'll lead you all in the dance, said he.
Hester sings it in school with Mary and then again with Norma in the car. What is the significance of this song to Hester, Mary, and Norma?

16. What is the significance of the swim that Norma and Hester take at the end of the book?

Editorial Reviews

Australian actor and young-adult writer Laguna (Too Loud Lily) delivers a grim, creepy, powerful first-person narrative about a direly neglected child whose knowledge of the world is severely circumscribed by her fanatically Christian parents. Told entirely in the solipsistic point of view of Hester, the only child of paranoid, abusive parents, the novel pursues the girl's deeply troubling relationship with them and their bizarre world view. Begrudged her difficult birth, Hester is routinely hung, Christ-like, from her arms in the basement by her depressed mother, who sequesters the young girl in their shared cabin, her only book The Abridged Picture Bible. Hester's brief foray to school, thanks to the intervention of the town authorities, proves eye-opening (she makes her first friend, Mary), but ultimately disastrous. Molested by her father through her adolescence, Hester is finally institutionalized when her parents can no longer control her. Laguna's rendering of Hester's fragile mental state is sympathetic and touching, especially through imagined dialogue with inanimate objects and in the friendship Hester makes with Mary, and then in the institution, with Norma. A truly haunting tale that readers won't soon forget, from a compelling, original voice. (Aug.)

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Publishers Weekly

Children's author Laguna (Too Loud Lily, 2004, etc.) takes a dark turn in her first novel for adults. Imprisoned in her home by a fanatically religious mother and a cowed father, Hester has almost no contact with the outside world. Her universe is defined by the interior of her house, snatched glimpses of the outside, an illustrated Bible and, most crucially, her imagination. Hester befriends every object she beholds and crafts magnificent fantasies. From the outside, her existence seems lonely and bleak-her parents don't just neglect her; they actively abuse her-but it is actually full of wonders. Laguna does an admirable job of creating a credible, fully formed young protagonist and narrator. She knows that a child's experience, no matter how horrific it might be, seems natural and normal to the child. Hester's innocence is compounded by her isolation: She has virtually no opportunity to understand how wrong her life is. The chief accomplishment of this strange and difficult novel is her unique voice. Laguna writes with lyrical economy, and her craft elevates a tale which in its bare outlines seems like sensational tabloid fare. A disturbing story graced by powerful, poetic prose.

Kirkus Reviews

A powerful and extremely disturbing novel… The lyricism of Hester’s astonishingly beautiful and myopic voice is constant, even when the plot becomes terrifying and tragic…. This is an extraordinary, poetic novel that gives as much as it takes...it will also open a door on perception and understanding.”—Blogcritics.org

"A truly haunting tale that readers won’t soon forget, from a compelling, original voice."—Publishers Weekly

"Laguna writes with lyrical economy, and her craft elevates a tale which in its bare outlines seems like sensational tabloid fare...A disturbing story graced by powerful, poetic prose."—Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher