Nuclear disasters come of age in new book

Wiser than the adults around her yet convinced she's a hopeless loser, Emily Shepard is a literary descendant of Holden Caulfield.

Like J.D. Salinger's famous teenage misfit, Emily relates her harrowing story of escape and survival from within the confines of a mental institution, where she's being treated for anti-social behavior and self-mutilation.

Unlike Holden, who went AWOL from his fancy prep school and wandered around New York City for a few days, excoriating phonies, the resourceful heroine of Chris Bohjalian's Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands is on the run from a full-blown nuclear disaster.