New Releases by Curtis Sittenfeld

Alice Blackwell, whose husband is beginning his second term as president of the United States, describes her modest upbringing, her career as a librarian, her surprising courtship with the man who swept her off her feet, and her experience as First Lady.

Seit ihrem vierzehnten Lebensjahr geht Hannah der Frage nach, wie der Mann ihrer Träume beschaffen sein soll - der Mann, mit dem sie es ein Leben lang aushalten will. Bald zeigt sich, dass diese so simple Frage in der Theorie kaum zu beantworten ist, egal, ob Hannah mit gesunder Skepsis Glamourzeitschriften studiert oder real existierende Menschen in ihrer natürlichen Umgebung beobachtet - ihre unkonventionelle Tante Elizabeth etwa, die mit ihrem beängstigend hässlichen Mann Darrach durchaus glücklich zu sein scheint, oder Hannahs eigene, unrettbar zerstrittene und geschiedene Eltern. Im College dehnt sie ihre Feldforschung auf das Verhalten ihrer Mitschülerinnen aus, die im Gegensatz zu Hannah Liebe als reines Hobby betreiben und an Samstagabenden die Jungs vernaschen wie eine Tüte Popcorn. Unbestrittene Meisterin in dieser Disziplin ist Hannahs gefährlich attraktive Cousine Fig, die immer wieder in brenzlige Situationen gerät - aber eben auch in die Arme Henrys, des einzigen Mannes, der Hannah traumhaft erscheint, jetzt und in alle Ewigkeit ... Vom Ernst des Liebens Im College ist die zurückhaltende Hannah heimlich in Henry verliebt, doch der hat nur Augen für ihre attraktive Cousine. Jahre später - mit 29 - hat sie die Themen Sex und Liebe mehrfach, sowohl theoretisch als auch praktisch, erörtert. Da trifft sie Henry zufällig wieder. Ist er immer noch der Mann ihrer Träume? ''Das Werk einer Schriftstellerin, die bleiben wird.'' New York Times ''Sittenfeld stellt wieder ihre Beobachtungsgabe unter Beweis, so trocken wie guter Martini.'' Elle Curtis Sittenfeld absolvierte die Stanford University und erhielt mit 16 ihren ersten namhaften Literaturpreis, sie veröffentlichte in New York Times, Fast Company und der Washington Post. 2008 erschien ihr Roman Also lieb ich ihn und 2009 Die Frau des Präsidenten.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A gorgeously written novel that weaves class, wealth, race, and fate into a brilliant portrait of a first lady—from the author of Rodham and Eligible “Terrific . . . an intelligent, bighearted novel about a controversial political dynasty.”—Entertainment Weekly NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time • People • Entertainment Weekly A kind, bookish only child born in the 1940s, Alice Lindgren has no idea that she will one day end up in the White House, married to the president. In her small Wisconsin hometown she learns the virtues of politeness, but a tragic accident when she is seventeen shatters her identity and changes the trajectory of her life. More than a decade later, when the charismatic son of a powerful Republican family sweeps her off her feet, she is surprised to find herself admitted into a world of privilege. And when her husband unexpectedly becomes governor and then president, she discovers that she is married to a man she both loves and fundamentally disagrees with—and that her private beliefs increasingly run against her public persona. As her husband’s presidency enters its second term, Alice must confront contradictions years in the making and face questions nearly impossible to answer. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review • Chicago Tribune • NPR • Rocky Mountain News • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Washington Post Book World

A clueless young woman''s fantasies about family, romance and love collide headlong with the challenges, complexities, and realities of adult life and relationships.

Lorsqu''elle passe les grilles d''Ault, prestigieux pensionnat privé, Lee Fiora voit son rêve se réaliser. A quatorze ans, elle a choisi de quitter son Indiana natal pour intégrer ce vivier de l''élite américaine, niché dans les collines verdoyantes du Massachusetts. Mais, très vite, Lee comprend que ce petit monde lisse et attrayant n''est pas accessible à tous. Et surtout pas à une jeune boursière issue de l''Amérique profonde... Dès son arrivée, l''adolescente se heurte à l''univers fermé des vieilles familles de la côte est, à ces jeunes gens qui respectent des codes sibyllins pour le non-initié. A la fois intimidée et fascinée par ses camarades de classe, Lee devient vite une observatrice privilégiée de leurs rites et de leurs manies... Mêlant tambour battant les rapports compliqués avec les enseignants, les grandes amitiés féminines et une initiation amoureuse tumultueuse, les tribulations de Lee dépeignent avec drôlerie, justesse et férocité cette formidable tranche de vie que représente l''adolescence.

In the late 1980s, for reasons even she has difficulty pinpointing, fourteen-year-old Lee Fiora leaves her middle-class, close-knit, ribald family in Indiana and enrolls at Ault, an elite co-ed boarding school in Massachusetts. Both intimidated and fascinated by her classmates, Lee becomes a shrewd observer of, and ultimately a participant in, their rituals and mores, although, as a scholarship student, she constantly feels like an outsider. By the time she''s a senior, Lee has found her place at Ault. But when her behavior takes a self-destructive and highly public turn, her hard-won identity within the community is shattered. Lee''s experiences, complicated relationships with teachers, intense and sometimes rancorous friendships with other girls, an all-consuming preoccupation with a classmate who is less than a boyfriend and more than a crush, are both a psychologically astute portrait of one girl''s coming-of-age and an embodiment of the painful and thrilling adolescence universal to us all.

In her acclaimed debut novel, Prep, Curtis Sittenfeld created a touchstone with her pitch-perfect portrayal of adolescence. Her prose is as intensely realistic and compelling as ever in The Man of My Dreams, a disarmingly candid and sympathetic novel about the collision of a young woman’s fantasies of family and love with the challenges and realities of adult life. Hannah Gavener is fourteen in the summer of 1991. In the magazines she reads, celebrities plan elaborate weddings; in Hannah’s own life, her parents’ marriage is crumbling. And somewhere in between these two extremes—just maybe—lie the answers to love’s most bewildering questions. But over the next decade and a half, as she moves from Philadelphia to Boston to Albuquerque, Hannah finds that the questions become more rather than less complicated: At what point can you no longer blame your adult failures on your messed-up childhood? Is settling for someone who’s not your soul mate an act of maturity or an admission of defeat? And if you move to another state for a guy who might not love you back, are you being plucky—or just pathetic? None of the relationships in Hannah’s life are without complications. There’s her father, whose stubbornness Hannah realizes she’s unfortunately inherited; her gorgeous cousin, Fig, whose misbehavior alternately intrigues and irritates Hannah; Henry, whom Hannah first falls for in college, while he’s dating Fig; and the boyfriends who love her more or less than she deserves, who adore her or break her heart. By the time she’s in her late twenties, Hannah has finally figured out what she wants most—but she doesn’t yet know whether she’ll find the courage to go after it. Full of honesty and humor, The Man of My Dreams is an unnervingly insightful and beautifully written examination of the outside forces and personal choices that make us who we are.

Lee Fiora er 14, intelligent og flink på skolen. På eget initiativ søker hun seg til den velrenommerte pensjonatskolen Ault i Massachusetts. Lee kommer fra en middelklassefamilie, og holder skjult for sine bedrestilte medelever at hun har kommet inn på skolen med stipend. Sittenfeld tegner et portrett av en ung jente samtidig som han beskriver oppvekst, kjønn og klasse og tenåringsangst i et lukket miljø. Boken ble kåret til en av årets ti beste bøker av The New York Times da den kom ut i USA.