We Wish You Luck: A Novel

(Hardback)

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An exhilarating novel about a group of students who take revenge on a wunderkind professor after she destroys one of their own-- a story of collective drive to create, sabotage, and ultimately, to love. A Belletrist Book Club Selection Named a Best Book of 2020 by goop,ELLE and Vanity Fair Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2020 by The Millions,Lit Hub, Marie Claire An exhilarating novel about a group of students who take revenge on a wunderkind professor after she destroys one of their own-- a story of collective drive to create, sabotage, and ultimately, to love. It doesn't take long for the students on Fielding campus to become obsessed with Hannah, Leslie and Jimmy. The three graduate students are mysterious, inaccessible, and brilliant. Leslie, glamorous and brash, has declared that she wants to write erotica and make millions. Hannah is quietly confident, loyal, elegantly beautiful, and the person they all want to be; and Jimmy is a haunted genius with no past. After Simone - young, bestselling author and erstwhile model - shows up as a visiting professor, and after everything that happened with her, the trio only become more notorious. Love. Death. Revenge. These age-old tropes come to life as the semesters unfold. The threesome came to study writing, to be writers, and this is the story they've woven together- of friendship and passion, of competition and envy, of creativity as life and death. Now, they submit this story, We Wish You Luck, for your reading pleasure.

Reviews

"Caroline Zancans wizardry is difficult to summarize: her prose is precise, deft, cuttingsumming up a glance, an intent, a persons inner weather with perfect efficiency, and making it look easy. We Wish You Luck is a book for anyone whos ever had literature change their life. It makes the undeniable case for the power of words on a pagetheir power to make us, and to break us apart completely."
Rachel Khong, author of Goodbye, Vitamin

"A twisted campus novel told in the third person, which collectively expresses the perspective of three ambitious, brilliant students.... It's a rollicking read that offers a sharp take on the creative process, revenge, and envy."Elle

Elegant and enthrallingNewsweek

"Aclassic tale of revenge and redemption, as well as love and friendship, and success and ambition....Zancan adeptly describes the naked wanting, aspirations, and work that are part of the MFA experience, but she also shows how devastating cruelty or even mere criticism can be depending on how it is received and the recipients mindset. The novels characters are multi-dimensional..."Bust

"Zancan does a wonderful job of describing the characters who populate this program, with excellent pacing and a momentum that turns the MFA life into a gripping story of professional and personal revenge."The Millions (Most Anticipated List)

Immersive and atmospheric, easy to stick with... We Wish You Luck is a clever take down of the systems and privileges of writing programs and the academicification of creative writing. BookRiot

"So unbelievably satisfying.HelloGiggles

Literary catnip...young writers, bad teachers, revenge, poetry. A Eugenides-esque chorus of students narrate the events of their time at a low residency MFA program in Vermont. Emily Temple, Lit Hub

"[An]elaborate revenge plot, which I just had to see through to the last dark deed.Kiki Koroshetz, Goop

"[I]nventive, addictive....Zancan excels at portraying the claustrophobia and competitiveness that can arise when someone is near others who share the same goals. This ambitious novel about love and revenge reads like a thriller, while asking probing questions about what it means to make art and how artists influence each other, for better or worse.Publishers Weekly

"[C]aptures the fraught environment of almost-grown-ups on campus in sharp, unsparing detail and with lyrical momentum.... [A]sks intriguing questions about power, complicity, and the urge to tell someone elses story. Kirkus

Zancan weaves together an extraordinary story peopled by fascinating characters who are not easily forgotten. She explores the communal process of literary production and creates a palpable tension between creation and destruction that will keep readers engaged.Booklist

A seductive and tightly controlled literary revenge story. With a dash ofThe Secret History,We Wish You Luckis a wonderful, hypnotic novel about craft, narrative, and the stakes of literary production. Lydia Kiesling, author ofThe Golden State

We Wish You Luckis a thrilling tale, a puzzle that isnt so much assembled as revealed by its crafty chorus of We. I loved watching the story unfold, and I loved never knowing if the collective impulse was to create or destroy. A smart, fun read.
Lindsay Hunter, author ofEat Only When Youre HungryandUgly Girls

A coming-of-age story filled with fascinating, richly imagined characters, Zancan tells the story of writers and their intricate, at times darkly ruinous desires. Its rare to describe a book about writing as addictive, but thats exactly what Zancan has done here.
Hala Alyan, author ofSalt Houses

Author Bio

Caroline Zancan is the author of the novel Local Girls. She is a graduate of Kenyon College and holds an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars. A Senior Editor at Henry Holt, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband and their children.