Curtis Sittenfeld

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

Lee Fiora är en intelligent och observant fjortonåring när hennes pappa släpper av henne utanför sovsalen till den prestigefyllda internatskolan i Massachusetts. Hon har lämnat sin livliga lyckliga familj efter att ha sökt ett stipendium till Ault som hon, åtminstone delvis, valt på grund av den glassiga broschyr hon beundrat. Men Lee upptäcker snart att skolan är en sluten värld av blasé, attraktiva ungdomar som tillbringar sina lov på exklusiva semesterorter och som bara kommunicerar med sina likar. Pengar är något alla andra har, men ingen talar om. I deras sällskap blir Lee någon hon inte vill vara, någon hon inte ens känner igen. Hennes försök att närma sig andra slutar oftast i att hon sluter sig än mer. Hur ska man veta vem man är, när ingenting omkring påminner en?Curtis Sittenfelds debutbok är en insiktsfull, hjärtslitande och rolig uppväxthistoria likaväl som ett skickligt utforskande av klass, ras och kön i ett drivhus av tonårsångest, sex och ambition.

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
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''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

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?
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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''

En tvåbarnsmamma i villaförorten fantiserar om att förgöra en gammal vän vars präktiga livsstilsimperium kanske eller kanske inte är byggt på en lögn. En framstående advokat vet inte hur hon ska reagera när hon och hennes man på sin smekmånad stöter på hennes gamla plågoande från skoltiden. En bortkommen Ivy League-student får veta sanningen om en kursares till synes avundsvärda liv.

Curtis Sittenfeld har gjort sig känd som en vass samtidsskildrare som förmänskligar dem hon skriver om samtidigt som hon gör ner dem. I hennes första novellsamling får vi en aldrig tidigare skådad uppvisning av hennes "fenomenala förmåga att skapa karaktärer som bosätter sig i huvudet på läsaren" (Washington Post). I samtliga tio noveller i Jag säger det ni tänker vänder Sittenfeld upp och ner på förutfattade meningar om klass, förhållanden och könsroller i ett land som tycks både på glid och ohjälpligt splittrat.

Med gripande inlevelse och kuslig träffsäkerhet sätter Curtis Sittenfeld fingret på de tvivelaktiga beslut, missade förbindelser och stundtals häpnadsväckande sammanträffanden som utgör ett liv. Hon skriver verkligen det vi alla tänker - om vi nu kunde formulera oss lika slagfärdigt som en virtuos satiriker, lika fängslande som svunna tiders historieberättare och lika klarsynt som ett amerikanskt original.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER?This is Pride and Prejudice 2.0 and I must confess, I liked it more than the original? STYLIST?Bold and brilliant? GLAMOUR''Sheer joy? Giddy and glam and a hearty update of Pride and Prejudice? JESSIE BURTON, author of The MiniaturistLiz and Jane Bennet are good daughters. They?ve come home to suburban Cincinnati to get their mother to stop feeding their father steak as he recovers from heart surgery, to tidy up the crumbling Tudor-style family home, and to wrench their three sisters from their various states of arrested development.Once they are under the same roof, old patterns return fast. Soon they are being berated for their single status ? and for two successful women in their late thirties, it really is too much to bear. That is, until the Lucas family?s BBQ throws them in the way of some eligible single men . . .In this dazzling, heart-warming read, the much-loved classic Pride and Prejudice is catapulted into our modern world, singing out with hilarity and truth.__________________________________________________Praise for ELIGIBLE:?If there exists a more perfect pairing than Curtis Sittenfeld and Jane Austen, we dare you to find it?Elle?These days, if Curtis Sittenfeld writes it, I read it? Judy Blume?Eligible has all the charm, wit and romance of Pride & Prejudice?an absolute delight? Red?Dazzling?Woman and Home?Such a feast of a book? Nigella Lawson?Not since ?Clueless,? has Austen been so delightedly interpreted? New York Times

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.

''Nobody else writes with such precision and amusement about the absolute inability of men and women to understand each other'' RED MAGAZINE

''Recommended for anyone who enjoys short stories. She really doesn''t shy away from sticky, nuanced subjects ... delivered with absolute poise. Delicious'' PANDORA SYKES, The High-Low podcast
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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

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.

_____________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

THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA Reese's Book Club Pick 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.'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_____________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 2023Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick, April 2023

Hillary Rodham är 1971 en ung och lovande kvinna: hennes examenstal på Wellesley College har uppmärksammats av tidskriften Life, hon studerar juridik vid Yale Law School och hon är aktiv inom student- och kvinnorörelsen. Då träffar hon Bill Clinton. Bill är en stilig och karismatisk studentkamrat från sydstaterna, redan med siktet inställt på en politisk karriär. I varandra hittar de en djup samhörighet som ingen av dem tidigare upplevt, varken intellektuellt, känslomässigt eller fysiskt.

I verkligheten följde Hillary med Bill hem till Arkansas och han friade flera gånger. Trots att han fick nobben mer än en gång svarade hon som alla vet till slut ja och blev Hillary Clinton.

I Curtis Sittenfelds härligt fantasifulla roman går Hillary i stället en annan väg. Tvivlen kring det eventuella äktenskapet får henne att trots allt välja den svåra brytningen och lämna Arkansas. Under fyra årtionden stakar hon ut en egen bana, såväl offentligt som privat, en bana som återkommande korsas av Bill Clinton och som väcker frågor om de avvägningar vi alla måste göra när vi skapar oss ett liv.

Curtis Sittenfeld väver mästerligt ihop fängslande fiktion med verkliga historiska händelser och skapar en skärpt och träffsäker berättelse för vår tid. Rodham är en unik och oförglömlig roman som utforskar den ensamhet, moraliska kluvenhet och järnhårda beslutsamhet som kännetecknar strävandena efter politisk makt, men också av den glöd och de smärtsamma kompromisser som krävs av en kvinna med ambitioner i en värld som fortfarande till största delen styrs av män.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of American Wife and Eligible . . . He proposed. She said no. And it changed her life forever.   “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.”—O: The Oprah Magazine  In 1971, Hillary Rodham is a young woman full of promise: Life magazine has covered her Wellesley commencement speech, she’s attending Yale Law School, and she’s on the forefront of student activism and the women’s rights movement. And then she meets Bill Clinton. A handsome, charismatic southerner and fellow law student, Bill is already planning his political career. In each other, the two find a profound intellectual, emotional, and physical connection that neither has previously experienced. In the real world, Hillary followed Bill back to Arkansas, and he proposed several times; although she said no more than once, as we all know, she eventually accepted and became Hillary Clinton. But in Curtis Sittenfeld’s powerfully imagined tour-de-force of fiction, Hillary takes a different road. Feeling doubt about the prospective marriage, she endures their devastating breakup and leaves Arkansas. Over the next four decades, she blazes her own trail—one that unfolds in public as well as in private, that involves crossing paths again (and again) with Bill Clinton, that raises questions about the tradeoffs all of us must make in building a life. Brilliantly weaving a riveting fictional tale into actual historical events, Curtis Sittenfeld delivers an uncannily astute and witty story for our times. In exploring the loneliness, moral ambivalence, and iron determination that characterize the quest for political power, as well as both the exhilaration and painful compromises demanded of female ambition in a world still run mostly by men, Rodham is a singular and unforgettable novel.