How Could She: A Novel

How Could She: A Novel

Named a Best Book of 2019 by Esquire and a Best Book of 2019 (So Far) by Real Simple and Glamour "Bitingly funny and often painfully realistic." -- Entertainment Weekly "Brilliant. . . . Devastating, reliably hilarious." -- Nylon "[A] compulsively readable page-turner." -- Cosmopolitan An assured and savagely funny novel about three old friends as they navigate careers, husbands, an ex-fiancé, new suitors, and, most importantly, their relationships with one another After a devastating break-up with her fiancé, Geraldine is struggling to get her life back on track in Toronto. Her two old friends, Sunny and Rachel, left ages ago for New York, where they've landed good jobs, handsome husbands, and unfairly glamorous lives (or at least so it appears to Geraldine). Sick of watching from the sidelines, Geraldine decides to force the universe to give her the big break she knows she deserves, and moves to New York City. As she zigzags her way through the downtown art scene and rooftop party circuit, she discovers how hard it is to find her footing in a world of influencers and media darlings. Meanwhile, Sunny's life as an It Girl watercolorist is not nearly as charmed as it seemed to Geraldine from Toronto. And Rachel is trying to keep it together as a new mom, writer, and wife--how is it that she was more confident and successful at twenty-five than in her mid-thirties? Perhaps worst of all, why are Sunny and Rachel--who've always been suspicious of each other--suddenly hanging out without Geraldine? Hilarious and fiercely observed, How Could She is an essential novel of female friendship, an insider's look into the cutthroat world of New York media--from print to podcasting--and a witty exploration of the ways we can and cannot escape our pasts. “[ How Could She is] both a satire of the 21st-century media world—with its podcasts, tastemakers, and print products on life support—and an emotional accounting of changed friendship and aspirations.” — The New York Times “Precise and of-the-moment. . . .  A delectably uncomfortable time capsule of our post-aughts selves and the honest struggles that lurk inside the hearts of women everywhere.” — Vogue “This wily send-up of NYC’s high-flying media elites proves that hell is a party filled with velvet-clad single men. A trio of 30-something BFFs drift apart and back together amid ego-bruising soirées and dubious alliances. Mechling poses the age-old question: Do men work better as soul mates or accessories?” — O, the Oprah magazine “With the big-hearted psychological acuity of Meg Wolitzer and the keen social scrutiny of Edith Wharton, Mechling probes what’s thorny and brutal about female friendships while also affirming just how ferociously important they are.” — Esquire “Fifteen years after the finale of Sex and the City , our collective appetite for stories of highly ambitious female friends living, laughing, and loving in New York City hasn’t waned one bit. . . . This summer’s living proof of that concept is the bitingly funny and often painfully realistic How Could She .” — Entertainment Weekly   "For when you want a book to match your Aperol Spritz . . . enter Lauren Mechling's How Could She . . . . An inside look at female friendships—and betrayals." — The Skimm “Mechling captures the prickly feelings of possessiveness and isolation that creep in when two people in a triangle—even a platonic one—draw close, shutting out the third. Add to that the stress of trying to make a living when you’re a woman on the far side of 30, in a field that’s almost no longer a field yet is still dominated by men. How Could She has a vibrant modern energy, and it gets how hard it can be to preserve friendships when we’re so busy going after everything else we want in life.” — Time “Wit and spritzy entertainment. . . . In the lineage of Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City and, well before that, Edith Wharton’s novels of New York status-striving, How Could She is enjoyably rich in taxonomic details. . . . The ever-shifting media landscape is a fitting backdrop for Ms. Mechling’s trenchant look at the subjective nature of status envy.” — Sam Sacks, The Wall Street Journal "Mechling gives the time-honored moving-to-New York City novel a refreshing update: failure. Three thirtysomething friends reckon with seemingly successful lives that aren’t living up to expectations, thanks to mediocre apartments, marital strife, and the gradual dissolution of their chosen industry, print media."  — Entertainment Weekly “In  How Could She , Lauren Mechling captures the power dynamics, competitiveness, and beauty of female friendships.” — Real Simple , "The Best Books of 2019 (So Far)" "[A] compulsively readable page-turner about three friends—one just went through a breakup with her fiancé, one is struggling to keep it together as a new mom, and one is aging out of her It Girl persona. The thing is, they all think