Bennington is nineteen, a sharp, unshockable drama student who, when the cash flow runs low, sees no harm in a little out of hours escort work to fund her course. The world she moves in, where homeless friends sleep in an empty swimming pool, her Dad is a drunk and an ex-flatmate steals from his lover, has little to offer. So one vacation, left in an empty halls of residence at NY University, Bennington meets her madam and gets down to business, not forgetting to buy her first Louis Vuitton bag on the way. Unforgettable for her whimsical tone, amusing details and dead pan honesty: 'Afterwards I always say, 'You've got a great body' or if there's no way that's plausible, 'I love your moustache'. Sometimes I just say, 'Nice apartment' '. A funny, fresh and bittersweet debut.

This is a quirky, astute and often funny depiction of prostitution as the bored fiscal transaction that it really is GUARDIAN A witty, gritty and thoroughly convincing first novel NICK HORNBY Delightfully, sickeningly, hilariously enthralling TAMA JANOWITZ Infinitely worth reading QUENTIN CRISP

Twenty-seven-year-old Jennifer Belle is editor of the literary magazine, MUDFISH. This is her first novel. She lives in New York.