"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

#ReadWithJenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today

Emma Roberts Belletrist Book Club Pick
A New York Times Book Review’s Group Text Selection

An extraordinary new novel of art, love, and ambition from Lily King, the New York Times bestselling author of Euphoria

Following the breakout success of her critically acclaimed and award-winning novel Euphoria, Lily King returns with another instant New York Times bestseller: an unforgettable portrait of an artist as a young woman.

Blindsided by her mother’s sudden death, and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody has arrived in Massachusetts in the summer of 1997 without a plan. Her mail consists of wedding invitations and final notices from debt collectors. A former child golf prodigy, she now waits tables in Harvard Square and rents a tiny, moldy room at the side of a garage where she works on the novel she’s been writing for six years. At thirty-one, Casey is still clutching onto something nearly all her old friends have let go of: the determination to live a creative life. When she falls for two very different men at the same time, her world fractures even more. Casey’s fight to fulfill her creative ambitions and balance the conflicting demands of art and life is challenged in ways that push her to the brink.

Writers & Lovers follows Casey—a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist—in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis. Written with King’s trademark humor, heart, and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.

Length: 322 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Page Flip: Enabled	Audible book: Audible book Switch back and forth between reading the Kindle book and listening to the Audible book with Whispersync for Voice. Add the Audible book for a reduced price of $7.49 when you buy the Kindle book. Available

More items to explore

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items when the Enter key is pressed. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Louise Erdrich

460

Kindle Edition
$14.99
Emily St. John Mandel

622

Kindle Edition
$12.99
Therese Anne Fowler

503

Kindle Edition
$14.99
James McBride

772

Kindle Edition
$14.99
Amanda Eyre Ward

445

Kindle Edition
$12.99
Lily King

1,657

Kindle Edition
$9.64

Amazon Business : For business-only pricing, quantity discounts and FREE Shipping. Register a free business account

From the Publisher

Review

"This deep dive of a novel will stay with me forever."

-- "Elin Hilderbrand, #1 New York Times bestselling author"

[Lily's] payoff-heavy fifth novel."

-- "Shelf Awareness"

"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."

-- "Library Journal (starred review)"

"Gorgeous!"

-- "Elizabeth Strout, #1 New York Times bestselling author"

"Elegant, droll...The nimble, astute narration appeals. This meditation on the passing of youth is touching and ruefully funny."

-- "Publishers Weekly"

"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, New York Times bestselling author"

[A] charmingly written coming of age story."

-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"

"My favorite 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" --This text refers to the audioCD edition.

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of March 2020: At 31, Casey is still holding onto her dream of being a novelist. Most of her artist friends have given up their artist dreams for more practical, and lucrative, endeavors; but Casey writes and makes ends meet by waitressing and walking her landlord’s dog. Writers & Lovers is Lily King’s follow up to her 2014 breakthrough novel Euphoria, which was loosely based on the experiences of Margaret Mead, and one might expect King to tread a similar path in this new book. But this is a different novel altogether. That said, it’s a very enjoyable read, a breath of fresh air, with characters that leap off the page. Writers & Lovers is about the uncertainty of dating, and of pursuing the creative life, in a world that values success and stability. Life does not wait for Casey to fulfill her dream, if that dream even comes. So she works and she dates, and she tries to figure it out as she goes. Love and art require daily, often imperceptible, leaps of faith—and this book captures that perfectly. —Chris Schluep, the Amazon Book Review --This text refers to the hardcover edition.

File Size: 1478 KB
Print Length: 322 pages
Publisher: Grove Press (March 3, 2020)
Publication Date: March 3, 2020
Sold by: Amazon.com Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B082VLS8LB
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:

Enabled
Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Screen Reader: Supported
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,610 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #50 in Contemporary Literary Fiction
- #35 in Small Town & Rural Fiction (Books)
- #77 in Women's Literary Fiction

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?

Customer reviews

5 star		59%
4 star		22%
3 star		11%
2 star		4%
1 star		4%

How does Amazon calculate star ratings?

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

For the literary crowd

Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2020

Vine Customer Review of Free Product( What's this? )

Writers & Lovers is not a light read or a beach read. It is clearly literary fiction and the intended audience is people who are literary themselves. With that being said, it can come off a little pretentious. It is slow moving because it is much more focused on character development and literary elements than on a fast-paced plot. However, that doesn't mean it isn't a good read. For me, it was a satisfying read, but it probably won't be one of my favorites of the year.

It took me a while to get into, but I did find myself invested in it. I wanted Casey to get her life together and have her dreams come true. Now that she is in her thirties, most of her friends have given up on their creative passions and pursued more "normal" careers and lives. Along the way, Casey writes and falls in and out of love with other writers and struggles to deal with the grief of losing her mother suddenly. So, it felt like a book for an audience of writers and other creative artists.

I feel like this one quote from the book sums up the whole book itself: "It's really a book about art and becoming an artist and all the ways it ruins people, actually."

94 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

This Is Not Nothing

Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2020

Verified Purchase

It is difficult becoming an adult, at times, and in particular when you are in your 30’s. Not settled, no profession of means, no permanent relationship, no offspring, just a muddle. Casey feels all of this and more. Full of debt that grows larger everyday, a job as a waitress, living in a potting shed, and writing a novel that is just taking forever.

Casey aka Camila, lives near Boston, commutes to her waitress job in Boston on her banana bike. She has friends, a jerk for a landlord and her book. She tries not to think too much about her top three worries, her mother’s recent death, her huge student loans, and the man she met this summer, a married poet who swept her off her feet. While she is involved in the grief she feels from her mother’s death, she is trying to live, to be kind and care about others, without her need to hide all the feelings. Everything around her feels the cynicism, that is the way to make it through the day.

This novel by Lily King is fresh, vibrant, the characters leap off the page. In this day of digital devices, it is refreshing to have a young woman finding her way with every mistake she makes, but holding onto her dreams. She wants love, a family, but her grief and her uncertainty are holding her back. Casey has two lovers, a promise of a better job, and must make decisions. She is aware of her peccadilloes, and, in this way she is learning her craft. Her writing carries her, and her friends and her work reinforce this need. She has to write she says not because she thinks she has something to say. She writes because when she doesn’t everything feels worse. This is not nothing.

Recommended. prisrob 03-03-2020

68 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

JQuindaro

A nuanced look at things that matter.

Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2020

Verified Purchase

I Kindled this the day it came out and now that I've finished I can finally resume my life, reluctant though I may be to leave this congenial narrator and her finely rendered world. This is literary fiction of the best kind, not bogged down in overwrought sentences or hyper-emotionalism. The prose is clear and concise and the relationships between Casey and the two writers in her life are finely drawn. Her monetary woes and the death of her mother (we know from the start) and the problems with her father are believable and not sentimentalized. The setting is Boston, and you feel like you're there, but her descriptions are always on point and never gratuitous. But mostly, I just liked the whole deal! Lily King is a smart writer and made me feel like a smart reader.

37 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Susie | Novel Visits

Beautiful Story of Finding One's Self in the Midst of Grief

Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2020

Verified Purchase

Let’s just get right to it. I loved Writers & Lovers! It’s my favorite book so far this year and I can say with confidence that Lily King’s novel will be making an appearance on my Best Books of 2020 list. Rather than sum up what this book is about, I’m going to share the many reasons why I liked it so very much.

King’s Storytelling – I’ve seen some call it uneven, but I didn’t see that. From start to finish I was captivated by Casey’s story and fully immersed in Lily King’s gorgeous writing.
Grief – In the story, Casey (already estranged from her father) has recently lost her mother and King’s exploration of her grief resonated throughout the story. She made me ache for Casey’s loss.
“I might still be capable of feeling happy. She will want to know that. But I can’t tell her. That’s the wall I always slam into on a good morning like this. My mother will be worrying about me, and I can’t tell her I’m okay.”

“During the day I miss the novel. I’ve lost access to a world where my mother is a little girl reading in a window or twirling in fast circles on the street, her braids raised high off her back. Outside of that novel she is dead. There seems no end to the procession of things that make my mother feel more dead.”

“I’m in the mood to call my mother, that happy shift in the wind mood. I calculate the time in Phoenix. Nearly noon. Perfect. The bolt retracts, and I remember she died.“

The Writing Process – I enjoyed getting to know a character that had been completely consumed by the creative process for years. To her own financial and personal detriment, Casey could not let go. I also appreciated how self-aware Casey was, constantly questioning herself and where her life was going, yet through it all, she kept at it.
Relationships – In the past, Casey has been involved with men who were never quite right for her. As Writer’s & Lovers unfolds she meets two very different men, both writers like herself, each adding a layer of confusion to her life.
“It’s a particular kind of pleasure, of intimacy, loving a book with someone.”

Cast of Characters – I thoroughly enjoyed the entire group of characters that moved in and out of Casey’s life and I especially enjoyed those at the restaurant where she worked.
The Ending – Casey’s crisis point and its resolution worked for me. I even got a little teary at the end.
From start to finish, I delighted living in Casey’s world, watching the evolution of a young writer on the brink of change. Obviously, I highly recommend Writers & Lovers.

Note: I received a copy of this book from Grove Press (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review.

31 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Top international reviews

Disappointing

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 30, 2020

Verified Purchase

I've read all of Lily King's novels; each one has been better than the previous, with Euphoria a major triumph. So Writers & Lovers was a real disappointment for me, a slip back to her earlier work, which - while certainly not bad - isn't particularly good either.

There's something cold about Writers & Lovers, slight and insubstantial. The writing is occasionally quite good, with some amusingly sparky dialogue, but the novel never takes off, the characters a mere watercolor shadow of what they could be. At no point during the novel did I find myself caring what happened to Casey or indeed to any other characters apart from Harry and the two young boys, who were written with the charm that the others lacked.

I really wanted to love this book, and I really was excited when it finally came out - I've been waiting a long time for Lily King's next book - so I admit my expectations were high. Unfortunately, they were ultimately disappointed.

6 people found this helpful

Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

tGP

A Writer’s Journey

Reviewed in Canada on March 20, 2020

Verified Purchase

It’s clear that Lily King has waited on her share of tables. Or maybe she’s just such a perceptive writer that I believe she has. This is a book about the struggle to realize a dream. Casey is grieving for her loved mother and, at 31, still waiting for her ‘real life ‘ to begin.King makes us care about Casey. Her writing is devilishly good and deceptively artless. I loved this book and cheered for Casey to finally have some luck and success in her life.

Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Karen Hume

Gobbled in a Day

Reviewed in Canada on March 3, 2020

Verified Purchase

The painter is here doing touch ups throughout my house so I can’t do anything else, but even if he weren’t, I wouldn’t have wanted to do anything other than read this novel. I can’t say that this book will be for everyone. I can only say that it is a novel for writers who want to hold on to the dream of being a published author, even when that dream costs them more than they think they can afford to pay.

Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Sherry Bess

A memorable story of self discovery.

Reviewed in Spain on May 2, 2020

Verified Purchase

Lily King is like a tapestry maker who weaves you into her art. Her theme and characters are so real that the reader can connect and feel the emotion as she is carried along in the flow of events. A memorable book, like all of Lily’s.

Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again

Judith

Thoroughly enjoyable novel

Reviewed in Canada on April 11, 2020

Verified Purchase

I recognized the community of writers striving for publication, but it happens too easily, too much like a happy ending and unlike the real world the author builds for us. Still, hard to put down.

Sending feedback...

Thank you for your feedback.

Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again