“Piece of Mind: A Novel”

By Michelle Adelman

Norton (304 pages, $25.95)

“I was brain injured before it was trendy.”

That’s the arresting first sentence of “Piece of Mind,” the title of Michelle Adelman’s debut novel and an apt description of the way Lucy -- its 27-year-old narrator -- sees herself.

After being hit by a truck when she was 3, Lucy lost what she describes as her “executive functions,” including those that “relate to organizing, prioritizing, reasoning, disciplining, goal setting, time managing, decision making and impulse control.”

The text is sprinkled with Lucy’s renderings of animals. Actually drawn by Adelman’s older sister -- who herself suffered a brain injury when she was a child -- they really do suggest the sort of homespun, give-and-take relations between equals that Lucy describes.

Lucy’s interactions with humans prove harder, particularly after her father dies, joining the mother Lucy lost at 14. Since she can’t entirely care for herself, Lucy moves in with Nate, the 21-year-old brother who occupies a tiny apartment in New York City.

Nobody puts Lucy in a corner, and the more one watches her dance the more one wants to take the floor and join her. But Lucy -- lacking fine motor skills and prone to shuffle and stumble -- stubbornly moves to her own beat. When Adelman tries to smooth and straighten, one can count on Lucy to respond by giving her -- and us -- a piece of her own unforgettable mind. (TNS)