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Books to read if you love Cruel Summer

A guide to reading Curtis Sittenfeld's books

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Where to start reading Curtis Sittenfeld’s books

Romantic Comedy

I am obsessed with this book. A warm, wise, magnanimous and extremely funny novel which made me fall in love with the characters and feel happier about life. Sittenfeld writes with such insight and poignancy about the quirks of the human condition. ROMANTIC COMEDY should be prescribed to anyone needing their mood lifted

No-one writes romantic yearning as brilliantly and believably as Curtis Sittenfeld. I could not have adored this book more.

A rollercoaster of modern love and dating

STYLIST, Books to look forward to in 2023

Probably my favourite proof I've read for 2023, by one of my all-time favourite authors Curtis Sittenfeld... it's a brilliantly written, funny page-turner, I want to read it all again.

Her zingy new novel. While Sittenfeld knows the dramatic value of putting obstacles in the path of characters you're rooting for, she also isn't above giving readers what they want - and that's exactly what she does in this affable, intelligently-crafted tale of work and love

A gloriously quick-witted, intelligent love story, with sparkling dialogue and a satisfying plot

One of the most compelling, funny and gorgeous novels I've read in a long time. Curtis Sittenfield is a master of dialogue, and this love story packs serious emotional heft that will leave you rooting for its characters right til the very end.

i am excited beyond belief. This is THE literary event of the year for me

Curtis has a gift for writing women. Her characters spill off the page in all their messy, complex glory

Curtis Sittenfeld's zingy new novel tackles media celebrity, the pandemic and romantic frustration with ambition and panache...[An] affable, intelligently crafted tale of work and love

A witty, joyful, propulsive new take on the 'celebrity and the civilian' trope, Sittenfeld's novel feels like a classic dish prepared by a master chef and using only the freshest ingredients. I was so sad to say goodbye to these characters; I could have read 300 more pages, easily

The abiding pleasure of romantic comedy is that we can worry that they won't while knowing that they will. The genre acts as its own spoiler alert while somehow never lessening the suspense

Getting inside a living person's head sounds like a colossally bad idea, but Sittenfeld makes it convincing here, just as she did with a character based on First Lady Laura Bush in her 2008 novel, American Wife

Smart, funny, and a fascinating look behind the scenes of a sketch show. Exquisite

A thoughtful discourse on celebrity

Smart, funny and a fascinating look behind the scenes of a sketch show, it's another exquisitely written novel from Sittenfeld

[An] exhilarating love story that will restore your faith in humanity

A new novel from one of my very favourite writers...Bliss!

If anyone who can simultaneously skewer and revere the underappreciated rom com genre it's the author of Prep and Eligible

Expect lots of laughs and dry irony

Sittenfeld's well-crafted will-they-won't-they tale pairs irresistible escapism with equally satisfying observational expertise

Curtis Sittenfeld has made a name for herself by writing reliably smart, funny romantic heroines. Her new novel makes it official with a refreshingly irreverent take on the genre. Very funny

Like all the best romantic comedies, the tension lies in the will-they-won't-they back and forth of the story arc and true to all the best examples of the genre, readers will be rooting for Sally to have her much-deserved happy-ever-after

Delightful. The woman narrating ROMANTIC COMEDY is hyper-aware of the conventions of romantic comedy, and she knows full well that real life is no fairytale. But could it be this time?

Sittenfeld's latest takes a shot of SNL and makes sparks fly

If you're looking for a romance with edge, this book is for you. The writing is as intelligent and funny as you'd expect from the author of classics such as American Wife and it's a properly swoonsome love story

Cancel plans and dive into bestselling author Sittenfeld's hilarious take on the classic will-they-won't-they storyline

Written by one of the very best out there, Romantic Comedy is a novel that you won't want to put down and one you'll want to recommend to everyone you know

An enthralling, humorous and subversive tale set in the world of a live TV comedy show

Whip-smart, funny and a fascinating look behind the scenes of a sketch show. Curtis Sittenfeld has penned another exquisitely written novel

A piercing look at the genre of Romcom set against the backdrop of a Saturday Night Live-esque TV show - a rollercoaster of modern love and dating

Get lost in a modern romantic fantasy

A humorous take on Hollywood romcoms

Sexy, funny, thought-provoking and everything I hoped it would be. Her best novel since American Wife.

Romantic Comedy combines humour with poignancy and a lot of heart.

GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, Best romance books to read

Sittenfeld's novel continues her wider project of exploring the possibility for a kind of redemptive idealism within our flawed world

Sittenfeld has penned another exquisitely written novel

A fizzy love letter to the prototypical romcom

So much of Sittenfeld's work exists in the dissection and comprehension of female desire

Flirting with the tropes of its namesake genre, this playful novel follows Sally, a writer on an "S.N.L."-like show called "Night Owls," who falls in love with one of its guest hosts. Their relationship develops via e-mail in the post-grocery-wiping, pre-vaccine days of covid-19. When Sally decides to visit her beloved in L.A., their time together in his Topanga mansion requires her to navigate incredulity, insecurity, and an offer that she feels is an "affront to my independence." The novel is preoccupied with the instinctual nature of self-sabotage, and with the fulfillment that can come from defying ingrained impulses

Insightful romcom sparkles with real wit and wisdom

Scores big on giving readers an insight into the machinations of a TV writers-room

Full of dazzling banter and sizzling chemistry

If you ever wanted a backstage pass to Saturday Night Live, this book is for you

Both a brilliant portrait of the comedy world and a witty grown-up love story. Lives up to its name

A funny and tender romcom with a difference

Curtis Sittenfeld is the author of the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling Rodham. Other novels include American Wife and Prep, both bestsellers and longlisted for the Orange Prize, The Man of My Dreams, Sisterland, Eligible, and the acclaimed short story collections You Think It, I'll Say It and Help Yourself. Her stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Esquire, Oprah Magazine and the New York Times magazine. Sittenfeld was also the guest editor for the 2020 Best American Short Stories anthology. She lives with her family in the American Midwest. Follow her on Twitter @CSittenfeld

THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 
A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK 
 
'A hilarious, sweet, smart read that you're going to love!' REESE WITHERSPOON 
'A rollercoaster of modern love and dating' STYLIST 
'Biting, pacy, great fun' SUNDAY TIMES 
 
A TV script writer thinks she's done with romance, until an unlikely love interest upends all her assumptions: a humorous, sharp and tender novel from the bestselling author of Eligible, American Wife and Prep. 
_____________ 
 
Life is (not)* a Romantic Comedy... 
 
After a series of heartbreaks, Sally Milz - successful script writer for a legendary late-night TV comedy show - has long abandoned the search for love. 
 
But when her friend and fellow writer begins to date a glamorous actress, he joins the growing club of interesting but average-looking men who get romantically involved with accomplished, beautiful women. 
 
Sally channels her annoyance into a sketch, poking fun at this 'social rule'. The reverse never happens for a woman. 
 
Then Sally meets Noah, a pop idol with a reputation for dating models. But this isn't a romantic comedy - it's real life. 
 
Would someone like him ever date someone like her? 
 
Skewering all our certainties about why we fall in love, ROMANTIC COMEDY is a witty and probing tale of how the heart will follow itself, no matter what anyone says. It is Curtis Sittenfeld at her most sharp, daring and compassionate best. 
----------------- 
WHAT READERS ARE SAYING: 
 
'This book is heavenly. i just had a hilariously enjoyable masterclass in writing' ***** 
'Hilarious and screwball and warm' ***** 
'A book that helps transport you away' ***** 
'She makes the characters much more real than ordinary romcoms***** 
 
 
Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, April 2023 
Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick, April 2023

A Novel

Rodham

This addictive novel is the SLIDING DOORS of American politics. Gripping

A lot of fun. A wonderful, sad dream of what might have happened

Sittenfeld's RODHAM offers the catharsis of uncomplicated regret

While telling a compelling story, RODHAM provides an insightful analysis of the function of sexim in our political discourse. Sittenfeld is at her wittiest when recreating the men who dominate American politics

A nauseating, moving, morally suggestive, technically brilliant book that made me think more than any in recent memory about the aims and limits of fiction

This isn't just fiction as fantasy, this is fiction as therapy. A serious work of literary fiction designed to rally the spirits of liberal readers

‘An ingenious yet plausible glimpse of an alternative reality, and so involving that it occasionally comes as a shock to realise that there is a different reality, and we are living in it’

‘By tilting history on its side, Sittenfeld makes Hillary seem a fresh character and remarkably sympathetic’

‘RODHAM explores the mysterious territory between the inner and outer lives of a person who has long been a source of fascination, adulation and loathing’

‘Getting inside a living person’s head sounds like a colossally bad idea, but Sittenfeld makes it convincing here, just as she did with a character based on First Lady Laura Bush in her 2008 novel, AMERICAN WIFE’

Deviously clever . . . Sittenfeld’s Hillary is both a player in the Game of Thrones and a romance novel heroine. She’s a brilliant badass who has found her voice and knows how to use it. She’s whoever she wants to be

As Hillary finds her groove, so the momentum and entertainment builds, as does your admiration for how ingeniously and plausibly Sittenfeld has re-written the script

A counterfactual novel ... throbs with energy

A fascinating glimpse into an alternative future

Pacy... plenty of sex and gossip - and a cameo from a certain yellow-haired, orange-faced president-to-be... ripe for TV adaptation

Sittenfeld's writing is so fine, her characters so vivid, her empathy so profound that she manages to absorb the reader on a level that transcends partisanship. In 2020, that was a remarkable achievement and an enormous gift to her readers

It ends up being a love letter to a type: the female intellectual, who is given none of the licence of her less talented male peers. At the end, i found myself saying Oh My God

A triumphant feminist reinvention. Sittenfeld is the bard of presidential female adjacents

RODHAM is wide- ranging political anthropology, concerned not so much with what makes Hillary tick as it is with the culture around her and how she might have shaped events, and been shaped by them, if the pieces of reality's jigsaw were rearranged just so. It's stippled with clever mischief

A smartly structured character study and a stay- up- all- night plot . . . A captivating and durable story containing rooms within rooms. RODHAM turns into a high- speed bildungsroman about a woman of formidable intellect and self- insight.

It's the genius of Sittenfeld's prose that we come to understand this ambivalence,as well as the deep conflicts in this complicated character. In the longing and loneliness, the anger as well as ambition, this Hillary makes RODHAM a compelling portrait of a future that might have been.

Tantalizing . . . part thought experiment, part wish- fulfillment fantasy . . . delectably discussable, a book tailor- made for book clubs.

Wildly compelling . . . What RODHAM is interested in is examining what feminine ambition looks like when it is untethered from a man. . . . Sittenfeld is free to invent, and the reality she builds is deliciously dishy.

A moving feat of feminist and novelistic imagination

BY THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF ROMANTIC COMEDY, AMERICAN WIFE and PREP 
 
'This addictive novel is the SLIDING DOORS of American politics. Gripping' Stylist 
 
'Startlingly good. One of my favourite writers' KATE ATKINSON 
---------------------- 
'Awfully opinionated for a girl' is what they call Hillary as she grows up in her Chicago suburb. 
 
Smart, diligent, and a bit plain, that's the general consensus. Then Hillary goes to college, and her star rises. At Yale Law School, she continues to be a leader - and catches the eye of driven, handsome and charismatic Bill. But when he asks her to marry him, Hillary gives him a firm No. 
 
How might things have turned out for them, for America, for the world itself, if Hillary Rodham had really turned down Bill Clinton? 
 
With her sharp but always compassionate eye, Sittenfeld explores the loneliness, moral ambivalence and iron determination that characterise the quest for high office, as well as the painful compromises demanded of female ambition in a world ruled by men. 
_____________ 
'A lot of fun. A wonderful sad dream of what might have happened' Guardian 
 
'It ends up being a love letter to a type: the female intellectual, who is given none of the licence of her less talented male peers. At the end, I found myself saying Oh My God' Observer 
 
'An explosive new book' Grazia

The Man of My Dreams

Curtis Sittenfeld is the author of the Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling Rodham. Other novels include American Wife and Prep, both bestsellers and longlisted for the Orange Prize, The Man of My Dreams, Sisterland, Eligible, and the acclaimed short story collections You Think It, I'll Say It and Help Yourself. Her stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Esquire, Oprah Magazine and the New York Times magazine. Sittenfeld was also the guest editor for the 2020 Best American Short Stories anthology. She lives with her family in the American Midwest. Follow her on Twitter @CSittenfeld

From the Sunday Times bestselling author of RODHAM, AMERICAN WIFE, YOU THINK IT, I'LL SAY IT and HELP YOURSELF 
 
'A rigorous and wily stylist. She packs her pages with clever observations without appearing to be trying' NEW YORK TIMES 
'Grave, good-humoured, deeply engaging' GUARDIAN 
____________ 
Hannah is a confused fourteen-year-old. In the magazines she reads, celebrities plan elaborate weddings; in Hannah's own life, her parents' marriage is crumbling. 
 
Over the next decade and a half, love throws her some complicated questions. At what point can you no longer blame your adult failures on your messed up childhood? Is settling for someone who's not your soulmate an act of maturity or an admission of defeat? And if you move to another state for a guy who might not love you back, are you being plucky - or just pathetic? 
_______ 
 
Readers love THE MAN OF MY DREAMS: 
*****'I love everything Curtis Sittenfeld writes and this was no exception. Excellent' 
*****'Very realistic portrayal of an emotionally abusive atmosphere. Insightful, thoughtful' 
*****'Curtis Sittenfeld is a magnificent writer. Fantastic'

You Think It, I'll Say It

A dazzling, smart and razor-sharp story collection by Curtis Sittenfeld, Sunday Times bestselling author of Rodham and American Wife. 
 
The theme that unites these stories is how even the cleverest people tend to misread others, and how much we all deceive ourselves. 
 
Sharp and tender, funny and wise, they show Sittenfeld's knack for creating real, believable characters that spring off the page, while also skewering contemporary mores with brilliant dry wit. 
 
'DO-OVER', ONE OF THE STORIES IN THIS COLLECTION, WAS SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 SUNDAY TIMES EFG SHORT STORY AWARD.

Prep

The OC meets Donna Tartt's The Secret History with flashes of Clueless... Sittenfeld's strength is in making the experience feel universal...Everyone will wince with recognition at the horror of being a teenager. It's great to relive it all, now that it is happening to someone else.

Straightforward, serious, funny...There is so much that is right about this book. Sittenfeld captures the hothouse atmosphere of boarding-school, the way you see even people you don't like in their underwear...Mostly, however, it's Lee's voice that makes all this worthwhile.

Curtis Sittenfeld shares with Salinger a knack of capturing, in effortless prose, a teenager mindset...It feels important...Most vitally of all, it feels like adolescence.

You don't have to have attended an elite Massachusetts boarding school to find yourself reliving your adolescence in Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep...Even the Cross Sugarmans (major crush) and Aspeth Montgomerys (long legs, super popular) of this world will cringe with recognition at the book's fine-knit accuracy and detail.

Sweet Valley High as written by George Eliot. Sittenfeld is a pin-sharp observer, and in Prep she needles away at class, race and character...Prep will appeal to any age...A highly accomplished novel.

Sittenfeld's humour and sharp observation deliver a coming-of-age novel you can relate to

_____________ 
From the bestselling author of ROMANTIC COMEDY, RODHAM, AMERICAN WIFE and YOU THINK IT, I'LL SAY IT. 
 
'Sittenfeld writes girls and women as they truly are, with shades of light and dark, with and without grace, apologetic as well as fearless' GUARDIAN 
 
'PREP might just be my favourite book' PANDORA SYKES 
 
'Sittenfeld shares with Salinger a knack of capturing, in effortless prose, a teenager mindset' THE TIMES 
_____________ 
Lee Fiora is a shy fourteen-year-old when she leaves small-town Indiana for a scholarship at Ault, an exclusive boarding school in Massachusetts. Her head is filled with images from the school brochure of handsome boys in sweaters leaning against old brick buildings, girls running with lacrosse sticks across pristine athletics fields, everyone singing hymns in chapel. But as she soon learns, Ault is a minefield of unstated rules and incomprehensible social rituals, and Lee must work hard to find - and maintain - her place in the pecking order. 
_____________ 
'PREP is more than a coming of age story - it's a study of social class ... and Sittenfeld renders it with astonishing deftness and clarity.' JENNIFER EGAN 
 
'Straightforward, serious, funny.' London Review of Books 
 
'Sharp, caustic and brilliantly observed' Observer

Help Yourself

From the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of RODHAM comes a dazzling collection of stories that celebrates our humanity in all its pettiness and glory.

Sharp yet understated, assured but self-questioning, Sittenfeld take on race, sexism and the wokerati

A potent mix of biting truths, entertainment and rigorous social observation. Sittenfeld has never been sharper

Sittenfeld has an analytical eye for the festering grudges and deep-seated disrespects of everyday life. Exceptionally sharp

Short, sharp, thought-provoking. Perfect for these times

Sittenfeld's genius lies in her ability to sneak in complex issues into superficially low-key narratives

Stories with a feminist perspective that fizz with intelligence, smart observation and darkly dry humour.

Combining wit and wry compassion, these stories are brilliantly entertaining

An impeccable study of human flaws and frailties, fizzing with wit and empathy

An impeccable study of human flaws and frailties, fizzing with wit and empathy

Sittenfeld's talent for creating characters that elicit an uneasy mix of scorn and sympathy is on full display. This author at her very best

Discover these fabulous stories by the bestselling author of ROMANTIC COMEDY, AMERICAN WIFE and YOU THINK IT, I'LL SAY IT. 
 
'Nobody else writes with such precision and amusement' RED MAGAZINE 
 
'Recommended for anyone who enjoys short stories. Delicious' PANDORA SYKES, The High-Low podcast 
____________________________________ 
 
Sittenfeld's wryly hilarious and insightful new collection, HELP YOURSELF, illuminates human experience and gracefully upends our assumptions about class and race, envy and disappointment, gender and celebrity. 
 
Suburban friends fall out after a racist encounter at a birthday party is caught on video and posted on Facebook; an illustrious Manhattan film crew are victims of their own snobbery when they underestimate a pre-school teacher from the Mid-West; and a group of young writers fight about love and narrative style as they compete for a prestigious bursary. 
 
Connecting each of these three stories is Sittenfeld's truthful yet merciless eye. Full of tenderness and compassion, this dazzling collection celebrates our humanity in all its pettiness and glory. 
 
 
A STYLIST Best Books for Autumn title 
Featured in the Sunday Times Guide to Culture 
 
 
Praise for CURTIS SITTENFELD: 
 
'You won't want these stories to end' REESE WITHERSPOON 
'Perfect miniatures in deadpan prose' GUARDIAN 
'Clear-eyed and compulsive' MAIL ON SUNDAY

American Wife

The acclaimed word-of-mouth bestseller about the marriage of an American First Lady: A rich, utterly absorbing, powerful story of how an ordinary girl from an unremarkable town grows up to become First Lady of the United States.

Such an accomplished work of fiction... a thoughtful and compelling examination of the mechanics of family and marriage... Knowing and knowledgeable, yet also inventive and original, American Wife is a thrilling combination of history and surprises

Superbly well-written - one of the most absorbing books of the year

Thoroughly enjoyable. The plot is beautifully paced, the writing quick, clear, absorbing... A sweeping saga

A powerful, utterly compelling and strangely moving fictional account of a First Lady who bears more than a passing resemblance to Laura Bush

I was utterly absorbed in this story of a political marriage and a wife who has her own reasons. Curtis Sittenfeld has thrown a powerful light on small town America and its misunderstood values

Linda Grant, Booker shortlisted author of The Clothes on Their Backs

A quietly riveting parable... thought-provoking, entertaining and full of subtle reflections on class and marriage

A classic story, with a langorous pace and a fierce literary integrity... Sittenfeld has provided a plausible secret history of an American embarrassment - and a grand entertainment

American Wife is easily one of the best books written so far this century. It is honest, wonderful and smart as hell, the kind of book that you try to eke out to make it last as long as possible

This is one of the finest American novels of 2008

Curtis Sittenfeld is an amazing writer, and American Wife is a brave and moving novel about the intersection of private and public life in America. Ambitious and humble at the same time, Sittenfeld refuses to trivialize or simplify people, whether real or imagined

The scope and detail of American Wife are reminiscent of Richard Russo. Like Russo, she creates characters from the ground up, ancestry, neighborhood, culture and all... Her characters are carefully rendered and the story is well-constructed

Vastly entertaining... It is an intelligent, well-crafted, psychologically astute novel

Weaves fate, family, marriage, wealth and power into an absorbing story

This engagingly candid First Lady is belssed with so many attractive qualities that her story grips from the very beginning. Full marks to Curtis Sittenfeld

Best book: I was on the beach in Croatia recently and it was the one book that quite a few women were lying there reading. It was surreal

I truly can't believe what a great writer Sittenfeld is, she's fantastic

A deft, funny and revealing story... This clever and convincing portrait of human frailty is a reminder that perhaps none of us is what we might seem. An honest and insightful story of a marriage, and a refreshing take on recent history

When people ask for book recommendations I often press Curtis Sittenfeld’s magnificent third novel, American Wife, into their hands. This loosely fictionalised life of former first lady Laura Bush has a rare and magical combination of accessibility, wit and serious thinking.

By the Sunday Times bestselling author of ROMANTIC COMEDY and PREP 
 
'Honest, wonderful and smart as hell' Guardian 
'Curtis Sittenfeld is in a league of her own' Observer 
 
All I did is marry him. You are the ones who gave him power. 
 
Quiet, bookish Alice Blackwell never dreamed of being First Lady. Much less to a President whose politics she doesn't believe in. On perhaps the most important day of her husband's presidency, Alice looks back on the strange and unlikely path that led her to the White House, and to a decision - both treacherous and long overdue - that could jeopardise everything. 
 
Taking inspiration from real life, AMERICAN WIFE is a remarkable portrait of a woman caught between her feelings for her husband, her country, and herself. 
 
'My favourite book of the century' HADLEY FREEMAN, GUARDIAN

Sisterland

From the bestselling author of American Wife, a novel about twin sisters who share a special gift, and the enduring bond between them. A Richard &amp; Judy Book Club pick.

A work of psychological genius and has a wonderful twist at the end...a literary pageturner...There's a fizzing, daring originality to Sisterland that draws you in and takes your breath away.

Engagingly messy mixture of the comic and the sombre...a beautifully delicate way of describing both familial and conjugal love.

Curtis Sittenfeld has a knack for capturing characters so vividly it's uncanny...brilliantly evokes small-town Eighties adolescence...the gripping denouement is expertly carried out.

Wise and empathetic, this is a book with a great sense of humour and an even bigger heart.

Sittenfeld's debut Prep was one of the best novels about adolescence written this century, and it is here, when dealing with the competitve world of teenage girls, that Sittenfeld is at her best in Sisterland...Like Kate Akinson with her recent Life After Life, Sittenfeld is a reliably realistic (if slightly dreamy) novelist  who has here tackled a somewhat far-fetched concept outside her normal range and displayed impressive comfort in doing so.

Most people I know who have read anything by Curtis sittenfeld would read anything else the woman wrote, me included...Suddenly, trivial details become exquisite insights into class, entitlement, love and your place in the world...Fans will instantly be swept along by Sittenfeld's confident, page-turning writing and sharp eye.

A joy to read...[for] Sittenfeld's ability to get under the skin of complicated, contradictory characters, capturing the anxieties, challenges and compromises of everyday life, love and parenthood so that ... you will find yourself nodding at the day-to-day dynamics and thinking, "Yes, that's exactly how it is."

Dazzlingly original, this absorbing book, which is at heart about family ties, fizzes with energy and will grip you to the last page.

Will this be a novel turning on supernatural powers and a natural disaster or something else altogether? Without giving the end away one can say that it is more than anything a wonderful anatomy of family life.

An intelligent, quietly devastating roller coaster of a read.

Sittenfeld’s confident no-frills style belies the complexities of her characters and their relationships.

The questions it raises about self-fulfilling prophecies remain compelling...a modern American fable about tempting fate.

Novelists get called master storytellers all the time, but Sittenfeld really is one.

Psychologically vivid...Sisterland is a testament to the author's growing depth and assurance as a writer.

A must-read: the best dissection of a life spent among small children I've ever read.

This assured and confident novel successfully combines the high-concept fantasy of Bewitched with the high-brow realism of Updike or Tyler

Fans will be swept along by Sittenfeld's confident, page-turning writing

BY THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF RODHAM and AMERICAN WIFE 
'A work of psychological genius' OBSERVER 
_______________________________- 
 
Identical twins, Kate and Violet are about as unlike as two peas from the same pod can be. Except in one respect - they share a hidden gift. But after Kate inadvertently reveals their secret when they are thirteen years old, their lives are set on diverging paths. 
 
Twenty years later Kate, a devoted wife and mother, has settled down in the suburbs to raise her two young children. Violet is single, and lives a much more flamboyant and eccentric life. Then one day Violet ignites a media storm by predicting a major earthquake in the St Louis area where they live. 
 
As the day Violet has announced for the earthquake draws nearer, Kate must attempt to repair her fraught relationship with her sister, and to face truths about herself she has long tried to deny.

Curtis Sittenfeld

Witty, zeitgeisty short stories, which are full of astute observations and characters so convincing that they feel immediately familiar… Her narrators' voices are funny, warm and informal, making her stories such an easy pleasure to read that they disguise the skill behind Sittenfeld's attentive prose.

Sittenfeld zooms in on urban Midwesterners dealing with middle-aged disillusions in this witty story collection…In one sparkling comedy of manners after another, the author documents with a clear and affectionate eye how tiny prejudices and blind spots lead her protagonists astray. These stories entertain and unsettle in equal measure.

[Sittenfeld's] perfectly contained stories are a joy for their realistically and mundanely fractured characters, moral ambiguities, movingly related moments, and the message that even the smallest tale offers lessons to uncover.

Curtis Sittenfeld is one of America’s best working novelists . . . expect her usual, startlingly intelligent treatment of emotions and relationships

Curtis Sittenfeld’s fiction is perennially inhale-able: smart, barbed, and wickedly funny. I can’t wait to read her latest collection. I look forward to being delighted and destabilized

I love short stories and I love Curtis Sittenfeld and thankfully, Show Don’t Tell was everything I hoped it would be… clever, wry and deeply satisfying

Good as Curtis Sittenfeld’s novels are (among them Prep, American Wife, Romantic Comedy), fans of hers had reason to think, upon the arrival of her first collection in 2019, that her short stories were even better. These were topical, witty, and subversively sexy stories about jealousy, desire, and domestic and professional turmoil. And now comes her latest collection, Show Don’t Tell, a hugely entertaining and formidably intelligent tour through the psyche of mostly middle-aged mothers (and a few fathers), moderately content and successful and still yearning for more. Sittenfeld’s prose has astonishing ease, and her fleet, brisk dialogue sparkles with humor and mischief

Reading Curtis Sittenfeld is like eavesdropping on a conversation between long-standing friends.

Sittenfeld’s observations in her writing are always clever, and this new collection of short fiction includes a tale about the main character in Prep, who visits her boarding school decades later for an alumni reunion

[Sittenfeld] tackles the short story with emotional heft, holding up a mirror to the way we live our lives

A dazzling short story collection exploring marriage and female friendship with typical razor sharp wit

These gems from the Romantic Comedy author ... cover everything from professional jealousy to the joy of long-term female friendships

A cohesive, often dryly funny, occasionally heartbreaking set of stories, and a satisfying report from the front lines of middle age.

You won't be able to put down Curtis Sittenfeld's second short story collection. Sittenfeld's mastery of a comedy manners remains on display in Show Don't Tell

Show Don’t Tell is a bit like sitting down with a good friend who’s about to dish on some major life business. The stories are messy, delicious, spun through with bits of quotable wisdom (“If I’d still be me with Botox, why bother with the Botox?”) and complete with endings that will make you sit and think. Sittenfeld’s headline-adjacent musings don’t shy from addressing biases and assumptions of all stripes, nor does she fear a character who brings the cringe . . . Showcasing the glory of her characters’ complicated lives and allowing them to speak with voices all their own is a kind of rebellion, and it’s exhilarating.

Messy, delicious, spun through with bits of quotable wisdom and complete with endings that will make you sit and think. Sittenfeld’s headline-adjacent musings don’t shy from addressing biases and assumptions of all stripes, nor does she fear a character who brings the cringe

Sittenfeld’s worldview is more utopian than dystopian; Jane Austen-like, she treats her characters with humanity, even when their actions are cringe-inducing . . . A radiant contentment pervades these stories. They are retrospective but don’t rue the passage of time. This is a writer who’s comfortable in her skin. Sittenfeld is a sharp observer of social mores and an astute judge of character, but she’s never cruel.

Blends acerbic wit, shrewd insight and sharp-eyed observation to explore frustrated lives and the thornier, messier and grittier aspects of human relationships . . . what [Sittenfeld] displays in her expertly crafted and hugely engaging short-form fiction is, quite simply, supremely accomplished storytelling.

Each of these witty, intelligent stories is a slice of modern life, with complications created by finances, race, aging bodies, cooling marriages and growing children. And for fans of the author’s iconic debut Prep, the satisfying final story sends that book’s Lee Fiora to a 30-year reunion.

Thought-provoking short stories with wonderful characters that come alive on the page. Funny, fiercely intelligent and moving

It is hard to find fault with what is a bravura collection. Sittenfeld may demonstrate more creative risk-taking in her novels…but what she displays in her expertly crafted and hugely engaging short-form fiction is, quite simply, supremely accomplished storytelling

She is one the of the writers I think of as actually perfect. Here’s why. Her short stories - so smart, so funny. Her novels are gripping. Each story is a complete world, you get into it immediately. I know sometimes people think short stories are boring - they’re not. These are funny and smart and you’ll just be floating away into Curtis’ stories

These stories , which invite us into the interior lives of kind but complex people, feel like a quiet celebration of coupledom, love and ordinary lives.

Exquisitely paced short stories . . . [Sittenfeld's] trademark wit and efficiency are a perfect match for the form.

Effortlessly captures moments of significance between people

YOUR NEXT READ FROM THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR of ROMANTIC COMEDY, PREP and AMERICAN WIFE 
_____________ 
A New York Times Editor's choice 
 
'Messy and delicious' New York Times 
'Sittenfeld is in a league of her own' Guardian 
'One of my favourite authors' KATE ATKINSON, author of Death at the Sign of the Rook 
'Anything Sittenfeld writes, we'll read' People 
'She understands women so well; like having someone look straight into your soul' Reader review***** 
______ 
Razor-sharp, glittering tales exploring marriage, fame and female friendship, from the Sunday Times bestselling author. 
 
In this compulsive collection of twelve witty stories, Sittenfeld shows why she’s as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels, as she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends. 
 
In ‘The Patron Saints of Middle Age,’ a woman visits two friends she hasn’t seen since her divorce. In ‘A for Alone,’ a married artist embarks on a project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone together without lusting after each other. And in ‘Lost but Not Forgotten,’ Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel Prep a new window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an awkward school reunion. 
 
Witty, confronting and full of tenderness, Sittenfeld peels back layer after layer of our inner lives, keeping us riveted to the page with her utterly distinctive voice. 
 
READERS CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF CURTIS SITTENFELD: 
 
'Small windows into modern life and as such highly entertaining. Curtis, you're a star!' ***** 
'Sittenfeld understands women so well, it’s like having someone look straight into your soul'***** 
'Devoured! You'll recognise yourself and others in these pages' ***** 
'No-one else writes with such precision and amusement' Red Magazine

Curtis Sittenfeld

Books by Curtis Sittenfeld

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Books that feel like a warm hug

Books to read if you love Cruel Summer

Where to start reading Curtis Sittenfeld’s books

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