Praise for Writers & Lovers :
New York Times Bestseller New England Society's Book Award for Fiction Named one of The Best Fiction Books of 2020 by Kirkus Washington Post 's 10 Best Books of 2020TODAY SHOW'S #READWITHJENNA MARCH SELECTIONBELLETRIST BOOK CLUB APRIL SELECTIONNew York Times Book Review ’s Group Text Selection Amazon Spotlight SelectionEntertainment Weekly Vogue The Amazon Book Review Marie Claire Vulture People Lit Hub's Most Anticipated Books of 2020
“[A] comic and compassionate novel… It shares with [Euphoria ] a fascination with the difficulty of defining the worth of one’s life when the familiar markers of adult achievement are slow to materialize. With wit and what reads like deep insider wisdom, Ms. King captures the chronic low-level panic of taking a leap into the artsy unknown and finding yourself adrift, without land or rescue in sight.” —Maureen Corrigan, Wall Street Journal
"I loved this book not just from the first chapter or the first page but from the first paragraph... The voice is just so honest and riveting and insightful about creativity and life." —Curtis Sittenfeld, London Evening Standard
“[D]elightful… [A]n unmistakable broadside against fiction’s love affair with macho strivers, even — or especially — when layers of lyricism and tenderness coat their machismo. The emotional force of Writers & Lovers is considerable…" — New York Times Book Review
“Romance isn’t the point for Casey. Love is the gravy; words are the filet. Finding a way to build a life around work she loves, finding a way to support herself as a writer — this is the line connecting all three corners of the love triangle at the heart of this novel.” —New York Times Book Review, Group Text Book Club
“This smooth, deliberate chronicle of creation keeps the men in their place and Casey firmly rooted at the center of her own story. Instead of casting her as a woman torn between archetypes of male creativity, Writers & Lovers portrays her as a woman in thrall to her own generative processes, a devotee to the art of (her own) attention.” — Los Angeles Times
“Among the elements that make Writers & Lovers so winning are the perfectly calibrated little details, convincing conversations, and droll wit…. Writers & Lovers is a book about passion, desire, grief, determination, and finding one's way. It's also about craving love, family, and success… generously infused with heart and soul and wit and wisdom.” —NPR
“Wonderful, witty, heartfelt… Writers & Lovers is a funny novel about grief, and, worse, it’s dangerously romantic, bold enough and fearless enough to imagine the possibility of unbounded happiness.” — Washington Post
“King has created a woman on the cusp of personal fulfillment and strong enough to stand on her own, someone akin to Sally Rooney’s Frances in Conversations with Friends ... But King also situates Casey inside a variation of the which-lover-will-she-choose framework of, say, Nancy Meyers’s film Something’s Gotta Give ... The novel is a meditation on trying itself: to stay alive, to love, to care. That point feels so fresh, so powerfully diametrically opposed to the readily available cynicism we’ve been feasting on... King wants us to keep trying, through whatever means necessary, to beat the odds.” — Boston Globe
“[A] poignant and heartfelt novel about the effects of grief and the paths people take to get through life. I couldn’t put the book down…” — Seattle Times
“This novel will become a defining classic for struggling young writers.”— Vulture
"King captures the agita of an early-life crisis and the eccentricities of a writer’s life, spiking the narrative with wit, sumptuous imagery and hilarious skewerings of literary elitism." — People
“King leaves no barrier between readers and smart, genuine, cynical, and funny Casey. A closely observed tale of finding oneself, and one's voice, while working through grief.”— Booklist (starred review)
"[A] charmingly written coming of age story." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[I]ntimate and vulnerable... Lily King's novel follows a deeply relatable protagonist navigating a whole menu of crises surrounded by a cast of genuine, vivid characters... the book occupies a small space, but packs it to the brim with humanity." —Entertainment Weekly
“[A] down-to-earth saga of an extremely bright and likable single woman wrestling with sexual desires, emotional dreads… an engaging portrait of a woman confronting modern hardships.” —Associated Press
“King has portrayed effectively and compassionately with well-crafted prose, evocative descriptions, and spot-on dialogue.” —New York Journal of Books
"[F]unny and romantic and hard to put down, full of well-observed details of restaurant culture and writer's workshops. It's hard to imagine a reader who wouldn't root for Casey." —Library Journal (starred review)
"A knowing look at the pursuit of a life in the arts, with a protagonist you'll root for." —Marie Claire
“Elegant… The nimble, astute narration appeals. This meditation on the passing of youth is touching and ruefully funny.” —Publishers Weekly
“King is one of those rare writers who can entwine sadness, hilarity and burning fury in the briefest of moments.” —BookPage
“[A]n extraordinary novel… King beautifully documents every aspect of Casey’s character. Casey’s insights into the world of writing are fascinating nd often humorous…. The prose [is] linguistically sophisticated, clean and uncluttered.” —Midwest Book Review
“Seemingly light and breezy, the novel has an impressively steely core… Writers & Lovers has one of the most completely satisfying endings around, both surprising and solidly in character.” —Columbus Dispatch
“[R]emarkably funny… full of moments of keen observation, of wry remarks about the challenges of writing and the awkwardness of early love.” —Bookreporter
“Writers & Lovers made me happy. Even as the narrator grieves the loss of her mother and struggles to make art and keep a roof over her head, the novel is suffused with hopefulness and kindness. Lily King writes with a great generosity of spirit." —Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House
“Lily King is one of our great literary treasures and Writers & Lovers is suffused with her brilliance. It is captivating, potent, incisive, and wise, a moving story of grief, and recovering from grief, and of a young woman finding her courage for life.” —Madeline Miller, author of Circe
“Gorgeous!” —Elizabeth Strout, author of Olive Kitteridge
"Writers & Lovers is a portrait of the artist as a young woman. Lily King writes masterfully about desire and loss, creativity and inspiration, and how each overlaps and influences the other. I found myself reading slowly, underlining phrases, wanting to linger in the world of this novel. Her insights about love — how it is elusive and ineffable — and about grief — how it is something that you live inside — took my breath away.” —Christina Baker Kline, author of A Piece of the World
“Writers & Lovers stole my heart from its first pages. I am in love with this book. In. Love. This deep dive of a novel will stay with me forever.” —Elin Hilderbrand, author of Summer of ‘69
“My favourite of Lily King’s books so far. Exuberant and affirming, it’s funny and immensely clever, emotionally rare and strong. I feel bereft now I've finished.” —Tessa Hadley, author of Late In The Day
"If you loved The Friend but wish it had had more sex and waitressing, get ready for Lily King’s Writers and Lovers . Delicious.” —Emma Straub
Praise for Euphoria :
“Taut, witty, fiercely intelligent… King is brilliant.” —New York Times Book Review
“Intense, seductive, sexual, and intellectual… There are so many exhilarating elements to savor in Euphoria… Brava to Lily King.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“As concentrated as orchid food, packing as much narrative power and intellectual energy into its 250 pages as novels triple its size.” —Newsday
“Atmospheric and sensual… An intellectually stimulating tour de force.” —NPR
Praise for Father of the Rain :
“Surprising and wise…An absorbing, insightful story written in cool, polished prose right to the last conflicted line.” — Washington Post
“King is a beautiful writer, with equally strong gifts for dialogue and internal monologue.” — New York Times Book Review
“Haunting, incisive…King is brilliant.” — Elle
“An excellent novel, sensitive and perceptive.” — Chicago Tribune
Intense, seductive, sexual, and intellectual . . . There are so many exhilarating elements to savor in Euphoria . . . Brava to Lily King.”
Among the elements that make Writers & Lovers so winning are the perfectly calibrated little details, convincing conversations, and droll wit . . . Writers & Lovers is a book about passion, desire, grief, determination, and finding one's way. It's also about craving love, family, and success . . . generously infused with heart and soul and wit and wisdom.
“A devastatingly clever, lyrically written story about passion, grief and growing up.”
Wonderful, witty, heartfelt . . . Writers & Lovers is a funny novel about grief, and, worse, it’s dangerously romantic, bold enough and fearless enough to imagine the possibility of unbounded happiness . . . King has created an irresistible heroine – equally vulnerable and tenacious—and we’re immediately invested in her search for comfort, for love, for success.
As concentrated as orchid food, packing as much narrative power and intellectual energy into its 250 pages as novels triple its size.
"One of my favourite books of 2020—if not of all time. "
Seemingly light and breezy, the novel has an impressively steely core . . . Writers & Lovers has one of the most completely satisfying endings around, both surprising and solidly in character.
King is one of those rare writers who can entwine sadness, hilarity and burning fury in the briefest of moments.
King weaves a kind of magic spell….When you finish her gorgeous prose, you’re likely to want more. ”
The love-triangle plot proves to be a nimble vehicle for exploring the book’s true subject—overcoming, and making art from, hardship.
Lily King crafts a domestic drama with the adrenalin-fueled beating heart of a thriller, offering readers the best of two traditionally very different worlds.”
Taut, witty, fiercely intelligent . . . King is brilliant.
New York Times Book Review
King’s gift is to suspend the reader, to make the wait for resolution fascinating.
King has portrayed effectively and compassionately with well-crafted prose, evocative descriptions, and spot-on dialogue.”
New York Journal of Books
The love-triangle plot proves to be a nimble vehicle for exploring the book’s true subject—overcoming, and making art from, hardship.
Wonderful, witty, heartfelt . . . Writers & Lovers is a funny novel about grief, and, worse, it’s dangerously romantic, bold enough and fearless enough to imagine the possibility of unbounded happiness . . . King has created an irresistible heroine – equally vulnerable and tenacious—and we’re immediately invested in her search for comfort, for love, for success.
Intense, seductive, sexual, and intellectual . . . There are so many exhilarating elements to savor in Euphoria . . . Brava to Lily King.”
★ 02/01/2020
King, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for Euphoria , delves into what is frequently first-novel territory but with the skill and assurance of a seasoned pro. As the title suggests, the narrative follows Casey, a 31-year-old writer living in Boston, who is attempting to complete her first novel while debating between two potential romantic partners, both of whom are also writers. Successful author Oscar is widowed with two sons, while Silas is a quirky aspirant with whom Casey shares a strong sexual charge. A stressful day job as a server at a high-end restaurant, a recent heartbreak, health and financial concerns, and grief over her mother's recent death all add to Casey's dilemma over whether to choose the more stable and established Oscar or the seemingly less reliable Silas. With the novel set in the 1990s, missed and unanswered phone calls drive the plot in ways that wouldn't be possible in today's world. VERDICT While never minimizing the seriousness of Casey's personal problems, the book is also funny and romantic and hard to put down, full of well-observed details of restaurant culture and writer's workshops. It's hard to imagine a reader who wouldn't root for Casey. [See Prepub Alert, 9/9/19.].—Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis
★ 2019-09-02
"There are so many things I can't think about in order to write in the morning," Casey explains at the opening of King's (Euphoria , 2014, etc.) latest. The top three are her mother's recent death, her crushing student loans, and the married poet she recently had a steaming-hot affair with at a writer's colony. But having seen all but one of her writer friends give up on the dream, 31-year-old Casey is determined to stick it out. After those morning hours at her desk in her teensy garage apartment, she rides her banana bike to work at a restaurant in Harvard Square—a setting the author evokes in delicious detail, recalling Stephanie Danler's Sweetbitter , though with a lighter touch. Casey has no sooner resolved to forget the infidel poet than a few more writers show up on her romantic radar. She rejects a guy at a party who reveals he's only written 11 1/2 pages in three years—"That kind of thing is contagious"—to find herself torn between a widowed novelist with two young sons and a guy with an irresistible broken tooth from the novelist's workshop. Casey was one of the top two golfers in the country when she was 14, and the mystery of why she gave up the sport altogether is entangled with the mystery of her estrangement from her father, the latter theme familiar from King's earlier work. In fact, with its young protagonist, its love triangle, and its focus on literary ambition, this charmingly written coming-of-age story would be an impressive debut novel. But after the originality and impact of Euphoria , it might feel a bit slight.
Read this for insights about writing, about losing one's mother, about dealing with a cranky sous-chef and a difficult four-top.
