A love letter to the 1980s, to the dawn of the computer age, and to adolescence — a time I when anything feels possible — The Impossible Fortress will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you remember in exquisite detail what it feels like to love something—or someone— for the very first time. Until May 1987, fourteen-year-old Billy Marvin of Wetbridge, New Jersey, is a nerd, but a decidedly happy nerd. Afternoons are spent with his buddies, watching copious amounts of television, gorging on Pop-Tarts, debating who would win in a brawl (Rocky Balboa or Freddy Krueger? Bruce Springsteen or Billy Joel? Magnum P.I. or T.J. Hooker?), and programming video games on his Commodore 64 late into the night. Then Playboy magazine publishes photos of Wheel of Fortune hostess Vanna White, Billy meets expert programmer Mary Zelinsky, and everything changes. Advance praise for the impossible fortress "A love letter to the 1980s, adolescence, technology, nerddom, and Vanna White, The Impossible Fortress will make you laugh and remind you of how much is possible when you're fourteen." David Ebershoff, bestselling author of The Danish Girl "A sweet, funny, and moving tribute to nerds and misfits everywhere ... Fans of Ernest Cline and Chuck Klosterman-this is your next favorite book." Seth Grahame-Smith, New York Times bestselling author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies "Hilarious, compulsively readable, and surprisingly poignant... I absolutely loved it." Carolyn Parkhurst, New York Times bestselling author of The Dogs of Babel and Harmony