About Curtis Sittenfeld: 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

Curtis Sittenfeld

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YOUR NEXT READ FROM THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR of ROMANTIC COMEDY, PREP and AMERICAN WIFE 
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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***** 
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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

Show Don't Tell

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.

You Think It, I'll Say It

Ten scorching stories of self-deception by the Sunday Times bestselling author

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 
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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'

The Man of My Dreams

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

American Wife

The acclaimed word-of-mouth bestseller

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

Help Yourself

Three scalding stories from the bestselling author of AMERICAN WIFE

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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 
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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. 
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'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

Prep

The startling coming-of-age novel by the Sunday Times bestselling author of AMERICAN WIFE

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. 
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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

Romantic Comedy

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. 
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'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

Rodham

The SUNDAY TIMES bestseller asking: What if Hillary hadn’t married Bill?

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.

Sisterland

The striking Sunday Times bestseller

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