Oxford Messed Up
by Andrea Kayne Kaufman

List Price: $14.95
Pages: 336
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9780984675104
Publisher: Grant Place Press

Rhodes Scholar Gloria Zimmerman has come to Oxford University to study feminist poetry. Yet the rigors of academia pale in comparison to her untreated Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, fueled by her overachieving parents and manifested in a deathly aversion to germs and human contact. Her next-door neighbor (who is also, to her mortification, her roommate) is Henry Young, the appealing but underachieving English music student. Still mourning the death of his supportive mother while enduring the mockery of his disapproving and merciless father, Henry is haunted by the unexpectedly serious ramifications of a reckless and tragic youth. Gloria and Henry's relationship evolves from a shared obsession with Van Morrison's music into a desire to fill the gaps in each other’s lives. Yet the constraints of a debilitating illness and the looming revelation of a catastrophic secret conspire to throw their worlds into upheaval and threaten the possibilities of their unlikely yet redemptive love.

top of the page

"A beautifully written and compelling love story about two messed up people who help each other face and overcome their demons"

— Elyn Saks, Author of The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness and winner of the MacArthur Genius Grant

"In her first novel, Andrea Kayne Kaufman asks whether each of us, messed up in our own way, can choose to embrace happiness."

— Kathleen McCartney, Dean & Gerald S. Lesser Professor in Early Childhood Development Harvard Graduate School of Education

"Finally, a story that shows how powerful Cognitive Behavior Therapy really is, and a protagonist who is so much more than her OCD."

— Susan Richman, Co-Founder and Honorary Chair, OCD Chicago