Marcelo Sandoval hears music that nobody else can hear --- part of an autism-like condition that no doctor has been able to identify. But his father has never fully believed in the music or Marcelo’s differences, and he challenges Marcelo to work in the mailroom of his law firm for the summer…to join the “real world.” 

There Marcelo meets Jasmine, his beautiful and surprising co-worker, and Wendell, the son of another partner in the firm. He learns about competition and jealousy, anger and desire. But it’s a picture he finds in a file --- a picture of a girl with half a face --- that truly connects him with the real world: its suffering, its injustice and what he can do to fight.

Reminiscent of THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME in the intensity and purity of its voice, this extraordinary novel is a love story, legal drama and a celebration of the music each of us hears inside.

MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD © Copyright 2011 by Francisco X. Stork. Reprinted with permission by Scholastic Paperbacks. All rights reserved.