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Reading lists

Books that feel like a warm hug

Modern Lovers

** 'It's the beautifully drawn, vibrant characters that make this smart, compelling novel so irresistible.' Liane Moriarty ** 
 
From the New York Times Bestselling author of The Vacationers, Emma Straub brings us a sharply observed tale of modern love . . . 
 
Twenty years later and they were supposed to be grown-ups... 
 
Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. 
Summer in the city . . . 
 
College friends Elizabeth, Zoe and Andrew had a band, grew up, settled in New York and now they are still living round the corner from one another (and in each other's pockets). 
 
One hot summer as their kids come of age, making those first hesitant steps into adulthood, it's the parents who find that the lives they've so carefully stitched together begin slowly to come apart . . . 
 
 
'Has all the pleasures of Anne Tyler's compelling family portraits . . . with a Lorrie Moore-like sense of the absurdities of contemporary life' Michiko Kakutani, New York Times 
 
'Really entertaining. The characters are complex and likeable. It's one of those stories that makes you realise that life really does run away from you' Guardian 
 
'Straub's characters thrum off the page. The sort of witty and relatable summer title you'll devour with a contented smack of the lips' Independent 
 
'Funny yet tart, warm yet incisive. I adored it' Red

** 'It's the beautifully drawn, vibrant characters that make this smart, compelling novel so irresistible.' Liane Moriarty ** 
 
From the New York Times Bestselling author of The Vacationers, Emma Straub brings us a sharply observed tale of modern love... 
 
Twenty years later and they were supposed to be grown-ups... 
 
Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. 
Summer in the city . . . 
 
College friends Elizabeth, Zoe and Andrew had a band, grew up, settled in New York and now they were still living round the corner from one another (and in each other's pockets). 
 
One hot summer as their kids come of age, making those first hesitant steps into adulthood, it's the parents who find that the lives they've so carelessly stitched together begin to slowly unravel . . .

Hugely talented... intelligent holiday reading

Hugely talented . . . if you are looking for some intelligent holiday reading then this is the book for you

Straub writes with such verve and sympathetic understanding of her characters ... Reading this novel has all the pleasures of reading one of Anne Tyler's compelling family portraits

[Modern Lovers] has the smart, cool sensibility of Straub's other novels, and you're sure to love this one just as much

A funny and insightful look at love and relationships

Straub's novel might be set in well-trod modern literary territory (the parenting world of brownstone Brooklyn), but what she does with this familiar milieu is smart and fresh, offering new insights into the lives of people all around us

Thoughtful and hilarious, Modern Lovers proves growing up doesn't stop in adulthood

[Straub] sets her observational wit on three middle-aged friends (former college bandmates) who find themselves in a crisis of identity as their now-grown children head off to college themselves

What happens when you age out of your cool? It's a topic that filmmaker Noah Baumbach has explored, and Straub is his literary counterpart. . .  With the multigenerational structure, it would be easy to compare Straub to other masters of the genre like Meg Wolitzer or Jennifer Egan, but she's already a master in her own right after The Vacationers, so Modern Lovers should prove to be a witty romp

Wise and often hilarious, Modern Lovers is a testament to how the passions and secrets of our youth can last well into adulthood

[Straub is] a precise and observant writer whose supple prose carries the story along without a snag. Straub's characters are a quirky and interesting bunch. . . it's a pleasure spending time with them

Straub spins her lighthearted but psychologically perceptive narrative with a sure touch as she captures the vibes of midlife, middle-class angst and the raging hormones of youth. . . Readers will devour this witty and warmly satisfying novel

Sprinkled with humour and insight, this is a Brooklyn novel with heart

Emma Straub is quickly making a name for herself as an author who can deftly toe the line between literary and popular writing-her books are easy to breeze through, but there's also food for thought for the discerning reader

Now this is what I call good holiday reading. Straub writes beautifully and amusingly . . . hard to beat for sheer charm and gentle wit

Emma Straub puts the fun back in dysfunction

There's nothing more addictive than a darkly funny dysfunctional domestic drama. Straub's novel-set during a fraught family vacation in Mallorca-is pretty much the perfect beach read

Charming and absorbing, this is a novel that demands to be read in long, satisfying gulps

Emma Straub is a magician, full of brilliance and surprise

Witty and big-hearted . . . leaves you smiling for days

For those unable to jet off to a Spanish island this summer, reading The Vacationers may be the next-best thing. . . . [A] gorgeously written novel . . . When I turned the last page, I felt as I often do when a vacation is over: grateful for the trip and mourning its end

Delicious . . . richly riveting . . . The Vacationers offers all the delights of a fluffy, read-it-with-sunglasses-on-the-beach read, made substantial by the exceptional wit, insight, intelligence and talents of its author

I loved The Vacationers; funny and poignant and beautifully observed

Straub's novel is cast from the same mould as the likes of Liza Klaussmann's Tigers in Red Weather and Maggie Shipstead's Seating Arrangements . . . The Vacationers is a holiday read in every way with a gently witty narrative that slips down as easily as a beachside cocktail

Emma Straub is a gorgeous and witty storyteller

Witty and big-hearted ... leaves you smiling for days

Twenty years later and they were supposed to be grown-ups... 
 
Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. 
Summer in the city . . . 
 
College friends Elizabeth, Zoe and Andrew had a band, grew up, settled in New York and now they were still living round the corner from one another (and in each other's pockets). 
 
One hot summer as their kids come of age, making those first hesitant steps into adulthood, it's the parents who find that the lives they've so carelessly stitched together begin to slowly unravel . . .

All Adults Here

THE IRRESISTIBLE, UPLIFTING AND BIG-HEARTED STORY OF SURVIVING IN A MODERN FAMILY . . . 
 
 'A wonderful read' Elizabeth Strout 
 'Literary sunshine' New York Times 
 'A gorgeous and witty storyteller' Elizabeth Gilbert, author of City of Girls 
 'The world will love it' Ann Patchett 
 
 The instant New York Times BESTSELLER 
 ________ 
 
 After Astrid Strick - a widowed, 68-year-old mother of three living in upstate New York - witnesses an accident, she resolves to live more honestly. Starting with the mistakes she made in raising her family. 
 
 But are her kids, tangled in their own messy adult lives, really ready to be treated like grown ups? 
 
Charming, uplifting and well-observed, All Adults Here is the delightful story about the wonders and woes of modern family life. 
 ________ 
 
 Praise for All Adults Here: 
 
'Perfectly pitched summer reading' Stylist 
 
 'Smartly observant, wryly witty, big-hearted . . . ' Sunday Times 
 
 'This beautifully written book delves deeply, perceptively and humorously into the contemporary human condition' Daily Mail 
 
 'A glorious mash-up of Elizabeth Strout and Gilmore Girls' Red 
 
 'If you're a fan of Anne Tyler's writing, you'll love this captivating well-observed family drama' Good Housekeeping

A novel about how we try and fail at every age and yet somehow survive. It is brimming with kindness, forgiveness, humour and love and yet (magically) is also a page turner that held me captive until it was finished. This is Emma Straub's absolute best and the world will love it

Smartly observant, wryly witty, big-hearted . . . Fans of Ann Patchett, Anne Tyler and Lily King should seek [Straub] out

This beautifully written book delves deeply, perceptively and humorously into the contemporary human condition

A warm and witty story about a family learning to accept the mistakes of the past and feeling their way towards a new, more truthful way of being together. Emma Straub has such a wonderful talent for depicting small-town existence, as well as the challenges and frustrations of family life, that I was utterly immersed in the world of the Stricks. It's one of those books that leaves you feeling as if you've visited a new place and met new friends. All Adults Here is a joy to read

Sarah Haywood, author of The Cactus

If you can imagine a glorious mash-up of Elizabeth Strout and Gilmore Girls, All Adults Here is is

If you're a fan of Anne Tyler's writing, you'll love this captivating well-observed family drama

A novel full of poignant insights into family

In All Adults Here, Straub cements her status as a master of the domestic ensemble drama. While readers will relate to the comfortable familiarity of Straub's work, it has also taken on an unexpected air of escapism

Likely to be the book that every single person will be reading this summer

An affecting family saga that juggles issues as weighty as abortion, gender identity and bullying with ease

Emma Straub is a master of the breezy, but still literary, family drama. Her fifth novel. . . . promises to be another sprawling, big-hearted page-turner

A warm, funny novel about the lifecycle of one family

Straub etches in the comforting, often funny truths readers love her for. Like us, her characters are always getting older but never feeling quite old enough to do the right thing, to be the people they want to be, to let go of the past, and they're certainly never ready to die. An all-out celebration of the life force in ourselves and in our families

As always, Straub draws her characters warmly, making them appealing in their self-centeredness and generosity, their insecurity and hope. . . . Straub has a sharp eye for her characters' foibles and the details of their liberal, upper-middle-class milieu. With humor and insight, Straub creates a family worth rooting for

No less charming than the rest of her oeuvre, about one family growing up and ageing, and how the parent-child roles between parents and their children is swapped

Will make you question your entire childhood, and how much your parents influenced it as you learn one mother's perspective of what went right and what went wrong with her own family

Smart and funny and warm, the kind of novel you fall into and don't ever want to end, which is exactly what we need now

The book has already roused a flood of fans clamoring to find out how Astrid's story ends

The warm and funny novel only Emma Straub can deliver to us in this time of need

There's no drama like family drama as Emma Straub proves in this touching, humorous, and eye-opening new novel... All Adults Here weaves a memorable tale about navigating some of our most important, and most maddening, relationships

There's refuge to be found in stories of everyday people going about their lives...Emma Straub has become adept at finding amusement in the mundane, and her newest, All Adults Here, might just be her best yet

Leigh Haber, Book Editor at O, The Oprah Magazine

In her witty new novel, All Adults Here, Emma Straub examines adolescence, ageing, gender, and sexuality through the nuanced experiences of three generations of a New York family

Come for the close examination of parental child roles, stay for goats

Unlike parents when it comes to their children, novel readers are allowed to have favourite characters. This will be an impossible task for many readers of All Adults Here, in which Emma Straub switches among the perspectives of eight characters who are all endearing in their disarmingly muddleheaded or abjectly truth-seeking ways...gasp-worthy...belongs in the company of Cathleen Schine, Tom Perrotta and other fiction writers who understand that the degree of humour that can be teased from family drama is often directly proportional to the extent of the family's misery

All Adults Here is a master class on the small-scale American drama. There's a wry wink in the title; being grown up is no guarantee that you have it figured out. Ensconced in their upstate New York bubble, the Strick clan is the perfect show case...Yet this warm, optimistic novel argues that one should keep trying, regardless. All Adults Here affirms the value of community and family, no matter the strife that may rise up within them

One of our favourite funny and kind books of the year . . . perfectly pitched summer reading

Set over the course of an upstate New York summer, this shrewd, kindly tale embraces a topical spread of inter-generational challenges, yielding tart truths about love, class and family. It's spry and satisfying

If you can imagine a glorious mash-up of Elizabeth Strout and Gilmore Girls, All Adults Here is it

Set over the course of an upstate New York summer, this shrewd, kindly tale embraces a topical spread of inter-generational challenges, yielding tart truths about love, class and family. It's spry and satisfying.

A novel full of poignant insights into family

If you're a fan of Anne Tyler's writing, you'll love this captivating, well-observed family drama

Busting with witty and poignant observations about the messiness of family

Emma Straub has done it again! All Adults Here introduces us to the Stricks, a delightfully flawed family, with matriarch Astrid at the centre...I know I've been having trouble adulting during this time (seriously, I have to cook, again?!), and the characters in this novel feel like they're struggling right alongside me

All Adults Here will make you question your entire childhood

All Adults Here is deliciously funny and infectiously warm - a clever blend of levity and poignant insights. Straub's flair for irony and wit shine, and she puts a fresh (and progressive) spin on the age-old multigenerational family saga

The queen of the summer novel...we have turned to Emma Straub to bring us highly enjoyable, yet still thought-provoking, tales about witty protagonists in the throes of life changes

Straub's novel takes her signature wit upstate, exploring the complexities of small-town life and what it's 
like to live as an adult in the same place where you grew up

If you've spent lockdown at home with the family, this one might just ring true for you. A witty, warm and thoroughly entertaining novel. Relatable

It takes rare skill to make everyday family ups and downs so pleasurable to read but Straub brings both a deceptive light touch and a flinty sense of humour to this breezy big-hearted portrait of ordinary people trying to negotiate the landscape of being a grown up. A superior slice of domestic fiction for fans of Anne Tyler and Ann Patchett

Pulsating with perceptive wit . . . entertaining

Whips along with feel-good momentum, driven by warmth and love

Warm, witty, perceptive. Anne Tyler on laughing gas

It's the beautifully drawn, vibrant characters that make this smart, compelling novel so irresistible

Funny, poignant and beautifully observed

Straub writes beautifully and amusingly . . . hard to beat for sheer charm and gentle wit

Hugely talented . . . intelligent holiday reading

Warm and big-hearted . . . leaves you smiling for days

bestselling author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Straub writes with such verve and sympathetic understanding of her characters . . . Reading this novel has all the pleasures of reading one of Anne Tyler's compelling family portraits

A funny and insightful look at love and relationships

Smart and fresh, offering new insights into the lives of people all around us

It would be easy to compare Straub to other masters of the genre like Meg Wolitzer or Jennifer Egan, but she's already a master in her own right

Readers will devour this witty and warmly satisfying novel

A precise and observant writer whose supple prose carries the story along without a snag. Straub's characters are a quirky and interesting bunch . . . it's a pleasure spending time with them

Astrid Strick has always tried to do her best for her children. Now, they're finally grown up - but you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. 
 
Elliot doesn't have any idea who he really is, or how to communicate with his sons. Porter is, finally, pregnant - but feels incapable of rising to the challenge. Nicky has fled to distant New Mexico to live the bohemian dream. 
 
And Astrid is up to things that would make her children's hair curl. 
 
Until now, the family have managed to hide from each other. But when Nicky's daughter Cecelia comes to stay, her arrival threatens to upturn everything...

American Fantasy

EMBARK ON THE JOYOUS AND NOSTALGIC JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME IN THE LATEST NOVEL FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THIS TIME TOMORROW AND ALL ADULTS HERE 
 
'Pure joy' Ann Patchett 
'Fun, delicious, big-hearted' Taylor Jenkins Reid 
'Criminally readable' Maria Semple 
'I can't TELL you the enjoyment it gave me' Marian Keyes 
'I was completely swept away' Coco Mellors 
'You will feel so understood by this novel' Rainbow Rowell 
'Unexpectedly hilarious. Cheaper than therapy and a lot more fun!' Holly Brickley 
 
--- 
 
Annie is on a journey straight back to her past. 
 
When the American Fantasy cruise ship sets sail for a four-day themed voyage, aboard are all five members of a famous 1990s boyband, and three thousand women who have worshipped them since their youth. 
 
Newly divorced and with an empty nest, Annie is on board as a lark to appease her sister. Once a diehard fan of the band as a teen, she now feels out of place amid the sea of bedazzling t-shirts bearing the singers’ faces. Yet when the lights go down, the cocktails are poured and the band starts singing, Annie finally reconnects to a long-submerged part of herself. 
 
As she encounters Keith, the band’s slightly depressed, fifty-something lead singer – not just a celebrity but someone clearly in need of a friend – she feels like anything is possible. 
 
But is the connection between Annie and Keith just a fantasy? Or is this the beginning of a new chapter for them both? 
 
Full of laugh-out-loud reflections on fame, nostalgia, marriage and growing up, American Fantasy celebrates the magic of revisiting our youth, and the even greater magic of starting anew. 
 
--- 
 
PRAISE FOR EMMA STRAUB 
 
'Has all the pleasures of reading one of Anne Tyler's compelling family portraits' NEW YORK TIMES 
 
'Nostalgic, wise, funny, and filled with love' GABRIELLE ZEVIN on This Time Tomorrow 
 
'Smart, compelling, irresistible' LIANE MORIARTY on Modern Lovers 
 
'Her warmth and sense of humour electrify every page' NEW YORK MAGAZINE

American Fantasy is such a fun, delicious, big-hearted book.

I can hardly remember the last time I read anything that brought me such pure joy. I was up too late reading, then got up too early to go back to reading. All I wanted was American Fantasy. It brims with truth and humanity and insight, and it made me snort like a pig. I loved it. I think the entire country will love it.

Wow, who knew that what my life was missing was a book about boats and boybands?! This is a treasure chest of a story, filled with Straub’s signature warmth, humour, compassion and insight. I rooted for these characters and worried about them, and by the end, much like the Talkers, I was completely swept away by my love for them. An unmitigated pleasure from start to finish. I did not want to return to dry land!

So much fun but with such depth to the characters. Looking at midlife through Annie’s lens is a buoying experience. Even though it's super accurate about the reckonings of mid-life, the tone is blithe and hopeful, and that is so NEEDED right now. I can’t TELL you the enjoyment it gave me.

Peak intelligence and criminally readable

Emma Straub is the most empathetic and open-hearted writer in literature. It is pure joy to see her turn to the emotionally complicated territory of teenage nostalgia and what it means to reconnect with the feelings of youth from the realities of middle age. In American Fantasy Straub uncovers the beauty and regret of reconciling who we once were with who we are now.

A delicious novel about being a grown-up girl who once loved something very, very much. You don't have to be a fan of something to love American Fantasy, but if you've ever truly devoted yourself to a boy band or a TV show or even a series of books, you will feel so understood by this novel.

Emma Straub [is] the queen of the smart-girl summer read

It’s Straub, so you know it’s going to be funny, touching, and filled with family drama.

Come for the nostalgia, stay for the tenderness

Straub has a gift for exposing larger truths through small, telling details. Her warmth and sense of humor electrify every page.

A totally engaging and smart book about the absolutely marvelous messiness of what makes up family; a wonderful book.

Emma Straub is most famous for her wry, warm novels exploring how our relationships shape, delight, wound, and, ultimately, sustain us

Emma Straub is the New York Times bestselling author of four novels, The Vacationers, Modern Lovers, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, All Adults Here and the short story collection Other People We Married. Her books have been published in twenty countries. She and her husband own Books Are Magic, an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, New York.

Emma Straub

Straub has made a mastery of witty, warm novels that spin modern tales with literary flair. Her fourth might be her best. A clever, nostalgic, romantic tale. Part-Russian Doll, part-David Nicholls, it has the makings of a dreamy, witty, contemporary classic

Her most emotionally resonant work yet ... a complex tale that doesn't feel the slightest bit complicated

An excellent time-travelling novel about adolescence and second chances from the always brilliant Emma Straub

A tender tale of time travel. Straub strips back the layers to reveal what's important. It makes you want to stop what you're doing and call your loved ones immediately

I just finished This Time Tomorrow and I'm crying at its message and its honestly and its utter beauty. And now I have to go call my mom

One of the most moving and intelligent time travel novels I have ever read. Nostalgic, wise, funny, and filled with love

Gabrielle Zevin, author of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

This Time Tomorrow is a beautifully made, elegant music box of a novel that sets in motion its clever clockwork of delight-then breaks your heart with its bittersweet, lingering song

Gillian McAllister, bestselling author of Wrong Place Wrong Time

If I could time travel, I'd go back just far enough to start Emma Straub's beautiful novel This Time Tomorrow again for the first time. The pages brim with tenderness and an appreciation for what we had and who we were. I could not have loved it more

A tender, witty David Nicholls-esque tale of familial love

This autobiographical novel is delightfully nostalgic but the beauty of it rests in its tenderness and wisdom - a reminder of what's important and what we should cherish in life

A witty, warm novel about love and letting go, This Time Tomorrow is a rare gem. Emma Straub is such an elegant storyteller - I couldn't put it down

Phoebe Luckhurst, author of The Lock In

Emma Straub's This Time Tomorrow is that rare one-in-a-million novel that not only pulls you wholly into itself, but leaves a lasting mark when it finally releases you. Never has Straub's writing been more incisive, clever, and emotionally generous-which is really saying something. The kind of book that will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you call the people you love. Exceptional

Emily Henry, author of You, Me on Vacation

Can't recommend this deeply moving and pleasurable book more

Taffy Brodesser-Akner, bestselling author of Fleischman is in Trouble

This time-travelling take on a hypothetical return to 1996 and the protagonist's 16th birthday will be enough to remind you to cherish what you have

Time travel is a popular trope in fiction, and Straub deploys it brilliantly in her effervescent new novel. .... Straub is an expert chronicler of social mores and the inner lives of her (mostly) bourgeois characters, and here she delivers a surefire bestseller

A teasing time-slip novel, imbued with all Straub's trademark humour and humanity

The always delightful, deeply beloved Emma Straub returns with a novel that seems like her take on 13-going-on-30.... It's Straub, so you know it's going to be funny, touching, and filled with family drama

A wonderful book . . . about how we need to cherish those we have lost

Magical, heart-warming and insightful . . . Warm, wryly funny and melancholic, This Time Tomorrow asks the big questions of life while revelling in 90s nostalgia and the allure of New York City in the fall

Full of deftly managed plot twists, it's both fun and poignant

A heartfelt father-daughter story that breathes fresh life into the concept of time travel

Not every book teaches you something, but Emma Straub's insightful novel does. Witty observations and beautiful writing

Delightfully nostalgic but the beauty of it rests in its tenderness and wisdom - a reminder of what's important and what we should cherish in life

With her celebrated humour, insight, and heart, beloved New York Times bestseller Emma Straub offers her own twist on traditional time travel tropes, and a different kind of love story

This New York-set story about time travel will break your heart

This grown-up take on Freaky Friday balances humour and poignancy so well

Enlivened by Straub's typically acerbic prose and quirky characters, not to mention a good dose of 90s nostalgia

A wonderfully bittersweet story willed with humour, compassion and poignancy

Has a lot of heart, some satisfying plot twists and a bittersweet, open ended finale

Clever, complex and really rather lovely

Alice is a joy of a character . . . Straub brings the bittersweet passing of youth to adulthood to life in vivid detail, with a story steeped in 1990s nostalgia. It's a book to devour

'A gorgeous and witty storyteller'

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of City of Girls

Maria Semple, bestselling author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Emma Straub is such a funny and brilliant writer and this time-travelling tale is a charming exploration of what it would be like to find yourself younger and surrounded by the people you love when they're still at the height of their power

Emma Straub

Praise for This Time Tomorrow

Straub has made a mastery of witty, warm novels that spin modern tales with literary flair. Her fourth might be her best. A clever, nostalgic, romantic tale. Part-Russian Doll, part-David Nicholls, it ...

Poignant

Her most emotionally resonant work yet ... a complex tale that doesn't feel the slightest bit complicated

Straub has made a mastery of witty, warm novels that spin modern tales with literary flair. Her fourth might be her best. A clever, nostalgic, romantic tale. Part-Russian Doll, part-David Nicholls, it ...

Poignant

Her most emotionally resonant work yet ... a complex tale that doesn't feel the slightest bit complicated

Straub has made a mastery of witty, warm novels that spin modern tales with literary flair. Her fourth might be her best. A clever, nostalgic, romantic tale. Part-Russian Doll, part-David Nicholls, it ...

Poignant

Her most emotionally resonant work yet ... a complex tale that doesn't feel the slightest bit complicated

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