“A comic and compassionate novel.” Wall Street Journal
Winner of an AudioFile Earphones AwardFinalist for the 2020 New England Book Award for FictionLonglisted for the Not the Booker PrizeFinalist for the 2020 Voice Arts AwardNew York Times bestsellerA New York Times Notable Book of 2020A Washington Post Top 10 Book of the YearAn Amazon Best Book of the Year in FictionOne of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2020 in FictionAn Audible Pick of the MonthA Literary Hub Pick of the Month's Best AudiobooksA Booklist Pick of Audiobooks for MarchO Magazine Pick of Books for SpringA Vogue Pick of March Books to Read While You Are Stuck InsideA BuzzFeed Books Pick for SpringA Millions.com Pick of the MonthA People Pick of the WeekA Pop Sugar Pick of Must-Read Books by WomenA Vulture.com PickThe Belletrist Pick for AprilAn Indie Next List selectionSee All +
#ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today Emma Roberts Belletrist Book Club Pick A New York Times Book Review’s Group Text Selection
“I loved this book not just from the first chapter or the first page but from the first paragraph… The voice is just so honest and riveting and insightful about creativity and life.” —Curtis Sittenfeld
Following the breakout success of her critically acclaimed and award-winning novel Euphoria, Lily King returns with an unforgettable portrait of an artist as a young woman.
Blindsided by her mother’s sudden death and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody has arrived in Massachusetts in the summer of 1997 without a plan. Her mail consists of wedding invitations and final notices from debt collectors. A former child golf prodigy, she now waits tables in Harvard Square and rents a tiny, moldy room at the side of a garage where she works on the novel she has been writing for six years. At thirty-one, Casey is still clutching onto something nearly all her old friends have let go of: the determination to live a creative life. When she falls for two very different men at the same time, her world fractures even more. Casey’s fight to fulfill her creative ambitions and balance the conflicting demands of art and life is challenged in ways that push her to the brink.
Writers & Lovers follows Casey―a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist―in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis. Written with King’s trademark humor, heart, and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.
Praise
“A comic and compassionate novel.” Wall Street Journal
“Captures…the eccentricities of a writer’s life, spiking the narrative with wit, sumptuous imagery, and hilarious skewerings of literary elitism.” People
“A story of ambition—and what happens when the markers of adult achievement are slow to materialize.” NPR
"[A] charmingly written coming of age story.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Funny and romantic and hard to put down…It’s hard to imagine a reader who wouldn’t root for Casey.” Library Journal (starred review)
“A closely observed tale of finding oneself, and one’s voice, while working through grief.” Booklist (starred review)
“Elegant, droll…The nimble, astute narration appeals. This meditation on the passing of youth is touching and ruefully funny.” Publishers Weekly
“Gorgeous!” Elizabeth Strout, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“This deep dive of a novel will stay with me forever.” Elin Hilderbrand, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Exuberant and affirming, it’s funny and immensely clever, emotionally rare and strong.” Tessa Hadley, author of Late in the Day
“An unexpected delight in the multitudinous pleasures in Lily King’s new novel is narrator Stacey Glemboski’s beautiful soprano, which lifts into a breath-catching ballad at a key moment…Glemboski’s warm voice has great narrative appeal, and she populates the wealth of interesting characters with believable, imaginative voices. One wants to remain long in their company. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.” AudioFile
“A classic bildungsroman for struggling artists everywhere.” Los Angeles Times
“[A] smooth, deliberate chronicle of creation.” Los Angeles Times
“Follows a deeply relatable protagonist navigating a whole menu of crises surrounded by a cast of genuine, vivid characters.”Entertainment Weekly
“A knowing look at the pursuit of a life in the arts, with a protagonist you’ll root for.” Marie Claire
“King has created a woman on the cusp of personal fulfillment and strong enough to stand on her own…King wants us to keep trying, through whatever means necessary, to beat the odds.” Boston Globe
“This wonderful, witty, heartfelt novel…is a funny novel about grief, and, worse, it’s dangerously romantic, bold enough and fearless enough to imagine the possibility of unbounded happiness.” Washington Post
“A modern-day coming-of-age tale that challenges the creative quest narratives for women….absorbing storytelling.” Audible.com
Lily King is the author of several award-winning novels. Euphoria won the Kirkus Prize and the New England Book Award for Fiction and was named a best book of the year by Time magazine, the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, and many others. Her debut novel, The Pleasing Hour,won the Barnes & Noble Discover Award and was a New York Times Notable Book and an alternate for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her second book, The English Teacher, was a Publishers Weekly Top Ten Book of the Year, a Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year, and the winner of the Maine Fiction Award. Father of the Rain was a New York Times Editors’ Choice, a Publishers Weekly Best Novel of the Year, and winner of the 2010 New England Book Award for Fiction.
Stacey Glemboski is a seasoned voice artist and audiobook narrator of many books in the science fiction and young adult fiction genres.
Overview
Winner of an AudioFile Earphones AwardFinalist for the 2020 New England Book Award for FictionLonglisted for the Not the Booker PrizeFinalist for the 2020 Voice Arts AwardNew York Times bestsellerA New York Times Notable Book of 2020A Washington Post Top 10 Book of the YearAn Amazon Best Book of the Year in FictionOne of Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2020 in FictionAn Audible Pick of the MonthA Literary Hub Pick of the Month's Best AudiobooksA Booklist Pick of Audiobooks for MarchO Magazine Pick of Books for SpringA Vogue Pick of March Books to Read While You Are Stuck InsideA BuzzFeed Books Pick for SpringA Millions.com Pick of the MonthA People Pick of the WeekA Pop Sugar Pick of Must-Read Books by WomenA Vulture.com PickThe Belletrist Pick for AprilAn Indie Next List selectionSee All +
#ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today Emma Roberts Belletrist Book Club Pick A New York Times Book Review’s Group Text Selection
“I loved this book not just from the first chapter or the first page but from the first paragraph… The voice is just so honest and riveting and insightful about creativity and life.” —Curtis Sittenfeld
Following the breakout success of her critically acclaimed and award-winning novel Euphoria, Lily King returns with an unforgettable portrait of an artist as a young woman.
Blindsided by her mother’s sudden death and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody has arrived in Massachusetts in the summer of 1997 without a plan. Her mail consists of wedding invitations and final notices from debt collectors. A former child golf prodigy, she now waits tables in Harvard Square and rents a tiny, moldy room at the side of a garage where she works on the novel she has been writing for six years. At thirty-one, Casey is still clutching onto something nearly all her old friends have let go of: the determination to live a creative life. When she falls for two very different men at the same time, her world fractures even more. Casey’s fight to fulfill her creative ambitions and balance the conflicting demands of art and life is challenged in ways that push her to the brink.
Writers & Lovers follows Casey―a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist―in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis. Written with King’s trademark humor, heart, and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.