Girls They Write Songs About

(Paperback)

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'The instant feminist classic our generation has been waiting for' Ada Calhoun, author of Why We Can't Sleep A fabulous power ballad to female friendship, Girls They Write Songs About is a thrumming, searching novel about the bonds that shape us more than any love affair Rose and Charlotte arrive in 1990s New York, fresh out of university and fizzing with ambition. When they end up working at the same music magazine, Charlotte earnest, bookish is wary of brash, outspoken Rose. But hesitancy soon gives way to a unique friendship that will change both girls forever. Determined to take advantage of every day in this exasperating, jubilant city, their lives become entirely entwined. Together they find love and lose it, hit their strides and stumble, see each other through marriages, motherhood, divorces, career glories and catastrophes. But what happens when your lives start to fall out of sync What does it mean to give up on the dreams that held a friendship together As smart and comic as it is gloriously exuberant, Girls They Write Songs About takes a timeless story and turns it into a pulsing, wrecking, clear-eyed tale of two friends reckoning with the lives they've chosen, and the countless ways all the women they've known have made them who they are.

Reviews

'Wise, witty, atmospheric and layered.I absolutely loved this bookandI am desperate for my friends to read it.'

-- Katie Allen, author of Everything Happens for a Reason

'The conundrums Bauers characters must address as they juggle freedom, feminism, love and art are involving, and its easy to imagine a Greta Gerwig-esque big-screen take.'

-- Daily Mail

'Theinstant feminist classicour generation has been waiting for.'

-- Ada Calhoun, author of Why We Can't Sleep

'Excellent strange and artful, full of texture and feeling reads like aSentimental Educationfor our time.'

-- Vivian Gornick, author of Unfinished Business

'Bauer's third bookreveals a sharpened eye for social detail and a Laurie Colwin-esqueear for dialogue.'

-- New York Times

'Charlotte's narration rings true for the discerning writer and editor she is; the prose is razor-sharp and utterly devoid of clutter... With deftness and candor, Bauer tells a moving and thoughtful story of how desire and ambition change over time and how to make sense of the messiness of carving out a path and life of one's own. A smart and beautifully rendered portrait of two women's lives.'

-- Kirkus (starred review)

'The current crush of '90s nostalgia finds novel form inCarlene Bauer's heady, intimate tale of two young women who meet in the halcyon days of a New York music-magazine career circa 1997 then turns its focus to all that follows when the coming-of-age glow gives way, inevitably, to the deeper shades and complications of grown adulthood.'

-- Entertainment Weekly

'Finally, a book that stirs up the fire, hilarity, heartache and powerplant energy of female friendships. Remember how it felt to be young and invincible in New York City Remember the friends who showed up at your gorgeously gritty apartment bearing new and sparkling worldsGirls They Write Songs Aboutcarries the giddy, smart, shouted exuberance of free, young women right up and into the questions that haunt us as we grow: how, oh how, did I get here'

-- Samantha Hunt, author of The Unwritten Book

'A fantastically vivid story about feminism and friendship.'

-- People Magazine

'Humour and feminist passion powerGirls They Write Songs About. Charlotte, the book's narrator, a 'self-questioning mystic trapped in a late capitalist body,' damaged by her mother's unhappiness, forges a new family of intense female friendships and kinships with beloved dead female authors. A riot grrrl anthem of a novel, one that celebrates female longing, accomplishment and sisterhood while never forgetting the high stakes of our internal struggle to respect ourselves.'

-- Darcey Steinke, author of Flash Count Diary

'A tender and honest novel about the friendshipsand friendship breakupsthat shape people just as much as their romantic counterparts.'

-- Nylon, 'Must-Read Books of the Month'

Praise for Frances and Bernard:

'Evocativewittysparky'

* Stylist *

'The characters' charm and intelligence make them irresistible company.'

* Daily Mail *

'Bauer captures the style and language of the period with gleeful dexterity Exquisite.'

* Washington Post *

'A story of conversion, shattered love and the loss of faith, recalling 20th-century masters like Graham Greene and Walker Percy Bauer is a distinctive stylist who can write about Simone Weil or Kierkegaard with wit and charm.'

* New York Times Book Review *

'Warm, intelligent and addictive.'

* The Simple Things *

Author Bio

Carlene Bauer is the author of the memoirNot That Kind of Girland the novelFrances and Bernard. Her work has been published in theLos Angeles Review of Books,Virginia Quarterly Review,n+1,The New York Times Book Review, andElle. She lives in Brooklyn.