The first-ever collection of stories by New York Times bestselling writer Lily King, including previously published pieces as well as new, original stories.
FIVE TUESDAYS IN WINTER
by Lily King
Grove Press, November 2021
Hailed as “brilliant” (New York Times Book Review) and “wildly talented” (Chicago Tribune), New York Times bestselling writer Lily King has received widespread acclaim for her fiction. Her novel Euphoria (over 500,000 copies sold worldwide) was a breakout success, while, more recently, her novel Writers & Lovers was an instant New York Times bestseller, earned rapturous reviews, and was selected for numerous best of the year lists. Now the inimitable Lily King returns with her first-ever collection, including several never-beforepublished stories. Spanning over two decades of her life as a writer, King’s thoughtfully curated work elegantly explores her trademark themes of love, family, career, and loss.
In these stories, a teenage girl falls in love with her boss’s boyish yet married son. After her husband dies, a mother escapes to the German seaside with her daughter for a holiday she can barely afford, desperate to help the two of them grieve. And a man persists in trying to wake up his teenage granddaughter from a coma—the result of a skiing accident—cooing softly as he holds bottled scents to her nose, hoping the smell of sea water and grenadine will bring her back to him. Through these characters and more, Lily King intimately illustrates the extraordinary emotions that course through ordinary people.
Through galvanizing leaps of faith, heartbreaking conversations with lovers and children, and jolting violence at the hands of old and new friends, this profound, tender collection confirms Lily King as one of the greatest storytellers of our time.
Lily King is the author of the novels The Pleasing Hour, The English Teacher, Father of the Rain, Euphoria, one of the New York Times Book Review’s 10 Best Books of 2014, and Writers & Lovers. She lives in Maine.
Famed advice columnist Wendy Wise has been teaching women how to live their best lives for four decades, so why are her own two daughters such a mess? Clementine, who followed her mother’s advice to the letter, has just discovered that her husband secretly funneled their home fund into his fledgling business, while Barb, who always did the opposite of Wendy’s advice, is juggling too many projects and has moved back in with her cheating girlfriend. When Wendy swoops into town to save the day, the girls discover that their mother has problems of her own to address, and the three Wise women must confront the disappointments and heartaches that have accumulated between them over the years. Together, they learn that life and love don’t always look the way we think they should, and that what you want isn’t always what you need. At once witty and wise, humorous and heartbreaking, THREE WISE WOMEN is a novel about aging and change, the struggle to move forward into uncharted territory, and the courage and power of love to embrace a future that looks different than the one we expected.
THE MUTUAL FRIEND is an observational romantic comedy in the vein of Jane Austen, about how technology has changed the way we relate to the world and each other, and how we relate to that technology. It takes place over the summer of 2015, in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. Our hero, Alice Quick, is a 26-year-old former classical pianist child prodigy, now floating through life as a nanny. Alice has a dream: She wants to be a doctor. Once upon a time, in an impassioned Facebook post, Alice announced to all her friends that she’s finally gonna get her act together, take the MCAT, apply to medical school, and make something of her life. That post got hundreds of likes. But now it’s been three years and she still hasn’t done any of it. This summer, that’s all going to change. One day in June, when Alice moves in with her wild new roommate Roxy, and then goes on an unplanned blind date with a somewhat-mysterious 40-year-old bachelor named Bob, the wheels are set in motion for Alice to sign up for the MCAT, and spend the next 81 days studying like crazy, so she can pass the test and finally get into Medical School. But it’s not going to be easy. To complete her journey, Alice must do battle with a dragon, and the name of this dragon is distraction…
One family. One tragedy. One incredible decision to change their fate. A quiet lakeside resort in Vermont seems like the perfect summer getaway for Olivia and Harry Somerville and their three young boys. But in a single moment, their idyllic family retreat becomes a mother’s worst nightmare. Returning from a solo hike one afternoon, Olivia learns from a passing stranger that one of her sons has drowned—but not which one. In that moment, Olivia makes a panicked decision that will change her family forever. If she never knows which son has drowned, can Olivia convince herself that none of them have? By shielding herself from reality, can she continue to live in a world where all three boys are still alive? An emotional and heartfelt meditation on the nature of loss, the gift of recovery, and the bonds of love, THE ONES WE KEEP tells the story of one family as they learn to face their grief and fight for hope. Your next gripping book club read exploring the depths of a mother’s love, the endurance of family, and the mind-bending paths we take to shield ourselves from heartache.