New Releases by Elinor Lipman

Celebrate Jane Austen''s classic novels with this short story anthology starring forgotten characters as they experience their own happy endings. In honor of her 250th birthday, eight authors have come together with wildly imaginative reboots of the lives of several of Jane Austen''s minor characters. Written with plenty of love and wit, these clever stories star everyone from Pride and Prejudice''s snobbish Caroline Bingley to the modern descendant of Sense and Sensibility''s Eliza Williams and much more. Blurring genres and taking us across the oceans, Ladies in Waiting is a heartfelt celebration of Jane Austen and her timeless masterpieces.

From the author of Ms. Demeanor—one of the most beloved comedic writers of our time—comes a charming, laugh-out-loud tale of love and criminality, a pitch-perfect romantic comedy. “Over the course of more than thirty years and at least fifteen books, Elinor Lipman has been creating a singularly delightful and instantly recognizable literary universe. Lipmanland is a world adjacent to our own except the people there are more charming, the conversations are wittier, and love always prevails. Every Tom, Dick & Harry, weaves together estate sales, good and bad cops, and--get this—smalltown houses of ill-repute with effortless glee. Add sparkling dialogue, an improbably hilarious funeral, and one of the author’s most endearing love stories and you have the Lipman Literary Landscape at its irresistible best. When events are too much to handle in the real world, there are few better breaks than entering this one. Passport optional.”—Stephen McCauley Taking over her parents’ estate-sale business is not the life’s work that Emma Lewis bargained for. Yes, she grew up helping them empty people’s nests, but nothing prepared her for her biggest and stickiest “get”--the grand, beautiful house of ill repute masquerading as a decidedly beddable B and B. Should Emma turn down potential clients in need of decluttering just because they are shady, escort-y, and proud of it? No. A girl must make a living. Around some hairpin turns Lipman ingeniously reveals a straight shot to happiness.

Finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor “Ms. Demeanor is a complete and utter delight. Of course it is. What Elinor Lipman novel isn’t?”—Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls and Chances Are . . . “Who knew house arrest could be sexy and fun? Not me, at least not until I read Ms. Demeanor. Written with Elinor Lipman’s signature wit and charm, this breezy, engrossing novel tells the story of two people who make the most of their shared confinement.”—Tom Perrotta, New York Times bestselling author of Tracy Flick Can’t Win “When a neighbor’s complaint about consensual al fresco sex turns into house arrest and a suspended legal license, Jane’s recipe for survival involves cooking for another home-arrested tenant (could this be a match made in confinement?) while trying to figure out the whys and hows of her mysterious accuser. Filled with food, family, romance and intrigue, Lipman’s novel cooks up a bounty of delights as sparkling as prosecco and as deeply satisfying and delicious as a five-star meal.”—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of With or Without You From one of America’s most beloved contemporary novelists, a delicious and witty story about love under house arrest Jane Morgan is a valued member of her law firm—or was, until a prudish neighbor, binoculars poised, observes her having sex on the roof of her NYC apartment building. Police are summoned, and a punishing judge sentences her to six months of home confinement. With Jane now jobless and rootless, trapped at home, life looks bleak. Yes, her twin sister provides support and advice, but mostly of the unwelcome kind. When a doorman lets slip that Jane isn''t the only resident wearing an ankle monitor, she strikes up a friendship with fellow white-collar felon Perry Salisbury. As she tries to adapt to life within her apartment walls, she discovers she hasn’t heard the end of that tattletale neighbor—whose past isn’t as decorous as her 9-1-1 snitching would suggest. Why are police knocking on Jane’s door again? Can her house arrest have a silver lining? Can two wrongs make a right? In the hands of "an inspired alchemist who converts serious subject into humor” (New York Times Book Review)—yes, delightfully.

]Rachel to the Rescue is a mischievous political satire, with a delightful cast of characters, from one of America''s funniest novelists.

Daphne Maritch doesn''t quite know what to make of the heavily annotated high school yearbook she inherits from her mother. She discards it when she moves to New York. But when it''s found by a neighbor/documentary filmmaker, the yearbook''s mysteries - not to mention her own family''s - take on a whole new urgency

For longtime fans and new readers alike, Read, Love, Repeat: Three Novels by Elinor Lipman collects three beloved works (My Latest Grievance, The Family Man, The View from Penthouse B) by the “enchanting, infinitely witty yet serious, exceptionally intelligent, wholly original, and Austen-like stylist”* Elinor Lipman. (*Fay Weldon, The Washington Post) MY LATEST GRIEVANCE My Latest Grievance stars the beguiling teenager Frederica Hatch, the “Eloise of Dewing College.” Born and raised in the dormitory of this small women''s college and chafing under the care of “the most annoyingly evenhanded parental team in the history of civilization,” Frederica is starting to feel that her life is stiflingly snug. That all changes with the arrival on campus of a new dorm mother, the glamorous Laura Lee French, the frenetic center of her own universe. THE FAMILY MAN A hysterical phone call from Henry Archer’s ex-wife and a familiar face in a photograph upend his well-ordered life and bring him back into contact with the child he adored, a short-term stepdaughter from a misbegotten marriage long ago. Henry is a lawyer, an old-fashioned man, gay, successful, lonely. Thalia is now twenty-nine, an actress-hopeful, estranged from her newly widowed eccentric mother—Denise, Henry’s ex. Hoping it will lead to better things for her career, Thalia agrees to pose as the girlfriend of a horror-movie luminary who is down on his romantic luck. When Thalia and her complicated social life move into the basement of Henry’s Upper West Side townhouse, she finds a champion in her long-lost father, and he finds new life—and maybe even new love—in the commotion. THE VIEW FROM PENTHOUSE B Unexpectedly widowed Gwen-Laura Schmidt is still mourning her husband, Edwin, when her older sister Margot invites her to join forces as roommates in Margot’s luxurious Greenwich Village apartment. For Margot, divorced amid scandal (hint: her husband was a fertility doctor) and then made Ponzi-poor, it’s a chance to shake Gwen out of her grief and help make ends meet. To further this effort, she enlists a third boarder, the handsome, cupcake-baking Anthony. As the three swap moneymaking schemes and timid Gwen ventures back out into the dating world, the arrival of Margot’s paroled ex in the efficiency apartment downstairs creates not just complications but the chance for all sorts of unexpected forgiveness. A sister story about love, loneliness, and new life in middle age from one of our finest comic writers.

"Light and tight, On Turpentine Lane is constructed with an almost scary mastery."--New York Times Book Review "A diverting delight."--People " Lipman] has a way of crafting books so utterly charming that you want to set up residence inside them...On Turpentine Lane quickly becomes a friend."--Seattle Times At thirty-two, Faith Frankel has returned to her claustro-suburban hometown, where she writes institutional thank-you notes for her alma mater. It''s a peaceful life, really, and surely with her recent purchase of a sweet bungalow on Turpentine Lane her life is finally on track. Never mind that her fianc is off on a crowdfunded cross-country walk, too busy to return her texts (but not too busy to post photos of himself with a different woman in every state). And never mind her witless boss, or a mother who lives too close, or a philandering father who thinks he''s Chagall. When she finds some mysterious artifacts in the attic of her new home, she wonders whether anything in her life is as it seems. What good fortune, then, that Faith has found a friend in affable, collegial Nick Franconi, officemate par excellence . . . Elinor Lipman may well have invented the screwball romantic comedy for our era, and here she is at her sharpest and best. On Turpentine Lane is funny, poignant, and a little bit outrageous. "A light but serious antidote to what ails us all these days."--Washington Post "Delightful I read it in one day--truly a peak reading experience. Every page was packed with wonders."--Maria Semple

Two newly-single sisters, one a divorce?, the other a widow, become roommates with a handsome, gay cupcake-baker as they try to return to the dating world of lower Manhattan.

A winning collection of essays about home, love, cooking, politics, and the writing life from the acclaimed novelist.

Elinor Lipman (@elinorlipman) chronicles the 2012 election season with a poem a day—all in 140 characters or less.

This "tale of delicious revenge" (USA Today) is also "a punchy little comedy of manners.... Think Jane Austen in the Catskills" (Chicago Tribune). It''s 1962 and all across America barriers are collapsing. But when Natalie Marx''s mother inquires about summer accommodations in Vermont, she gets the following reply: The Inn at Lake Devine is a family-owned resort, which has been in continuous operation since 1922. Our guests who feel most comfortable here, and return year after year, are Gentiles. For twelve-year-old Natalie, who has a stubborn sense of justice, the words are not a rebuff but an infuriating, irresistible challenge. In this beguiling novel, Elinor Lipman charts her heroine''s fixation with a small bastion of genteel anti-Semitism, a fixation that will have wildly unexpected consequences on her romantic life. As Natalie tries to enter the world that has excluded her—and succeeds through the sheerest of accidents—The Inn at Lake Devine becomes a delightful and provocative romantic comedy full of sparkling social mischief.

A “warm, affecting tale” (People) about a ghostwriter learning lessons in life and love from her eccentric and viviacious subject. When Harriet Mahoney first sees it, Isabel Krug’s bed is covered with sheared sheep and littered with celebrity biographies. Unpublished, fortyish, and recently jilted, Harriet has fled Manhattan for Isabel’s loudly elegant Cape Cod retreat, where she will ghostwrite The Isabel Krug Story, based on the sexy blond’s scandalous tabloid past. Unusually “talented” in the man department, Isabel revamps and inspires Harriet as they gear up to tell all, including the tangled history Isabel shares with her odd lodger, Costas. Life according to Isabel is a nonstop soap opera extravaganza, an experience to be swallowed whole and the attitude is catching.

April Epner teaches high school Latin, wears flannel jumpers, and is used to having her evenings free. Bernice Graverman brandishes designer labels, favors toad-sized earrings, and hosts her own tacky TV talk show: Bernice G! But behind the glitz and glam, Bernice has followed the life of the daughter she gave up for adoption thirty-six years ago. Now that she''s got her act together, she''s aiming to be a mom like she always knew she could. And she''s hurtling straight for April''s quiet little life....

A hysterical phone call from his ex-wife and a familiar face in a photograph upend Henry Archer''s well-ordered life to bring him back into contact with the child he adored, a stepdaughter from a misbegotten marriage long ago 320 pp.

In this well-tuned, witty, and altogether wonderful novel, the beloved author of Ms. Demeanor and Every Tom, Dick & Harry dares to ask: Can an upper-middle-class doctor find love with a shady, fast-talking salesman? Meet Alice Thrift, surgical intern in a Boston hospital, high of I.Q. but low in social graces. She doesn’t mean to be acerbic, clinical, or blunt, but where was she the day they taught Bedside Manner 101? Into Alice’s workaholic and wallflower life comes Ray Russo, a slick traveling fudge salesman in search of a nose job and well-heeled companionship, but not necessarily in that order. Is he a conman or a sincere suitor? Good guy or bad? Alice’s parents, roommate, and best friend Sylvie are appalled at her choice of mate. Despite her doubts, Alice finds herself walking down the aisle, not so much won over as worn down. Will their marriage last the honeymoon? Only if Alice’s best instincts can triumph over Ray’s unsavory ways.

A liberal New England college campus is a peculiar place for a girl to grow up in this “lovable, psychologically intricate [and] bittersweet farce” (The New York Times Book Review). Massachusetts, 1970s. Born to a pair of “bleeding heart” professors who live on campus as dorm parents, Frederica Hatch soon finds herself the unofficial mascot of Dewing College. Life is so ideal that by the time she becomes a teenager, Frederica finds herself chafing under the care of "the most annoyingly evenhanded parental team in the history of civilization." But she’s about to learn that life isn’t as simple or idyllic as it seems—even amid the manicured lawns of a small women’s college like Dewing. A new dorm parent has just arrived on campus. Laura Lee French is glamorous, worldly, and the former wife of Frederica’s father. Suddenly, Frederica sees her parents’ lives—and by extension her own—in a whole new light. “May be Lipman''s best work so far... Every page offers laugh-out-loud dialogue.”—The Seattle Times

With her trademark humor and warmth, the beloved author of The Ladies'' Man and The Inn at Lake Devine explores going home again; about finding light in the dark corners of one''s inhospitable past; about love, golf, and DNA. Everyone in King George, New Hampshire, loved Margaret Batten, part-time amateur actress, full-time wallflower, and single mother to a now-distant daughter, Sunny. But accidents happen. The death of Margaret, side by side with her putative fiancé, brings Sunny back to the scene of the unhappy adolescence she thought she’d left behind. Reentry is to be dreaded; there’s no hiding in a town with one diner, one doctor, one stop sign, one motel. Yet allies surface; even high school tormentors have grown up in unforeseen and gratifying ways. Just possibly, Sunny begins to think, she wasn’t as beleaguered as she felt she was. And maybe her mother’s life was richer than anyone suspected. Add to the mix a chief of police whose interest in Sunny exceeds his civic duty, and you have the makings of an irresistibly beguiling tale from an author who writes with all the wit and wry authority of a latter-day Jane Austen.

Adèle, Lois et Kathleen Dobbin vivent sous le même toit, dans un quartier résidentiel de Boston. Actives, séduisantes, elles ont certes souvent été courtisées, mais seule Lois s''est un jour résolue à sauter le pas... le temps d''un mariage aussi bref que désastreux. La légende familiale attribue l''échec de leur vie sentimentale à un homme : Harvey Nash. Quand, un soir d''avril, le même Harvey Nash sonne à leur porte, son arrivée fait l''effet d''une petite bombe. Cette incroyable réapparition va réveiller chez chacune d''elles un mélange complexe d''insatisfactions et de désirs enfouis. Etait-ce là l''événement qu''attendaient sans le savoir les trois Belles au bois dormant pour sortir de leur torpeur amoureuse ?

From the beloved author of Ms. Demeanor and Every Tom, Dick & Harry comes a darkly romantic comedy of manners that confirms Elinor Lipman''s appointment to the Jane Austen chair in modern American sensibility. Thirty unmarried years have passed since the barely suitable Harvey Nash failed to show up at a grand Boston hotel for his own engagement party. Today, the near-bride, Adele Dobbin, and her two sisters, Lois and Kathleen, blame Harvey for what unkind relatives call their spinsterhood, and what potential beaus might characterize as a leery, united front. The doorbell rings one cold April night. Harvey Nash, older, filled with regrets (sort of), more charming and arousable than ever, just in from the Coast, where he''s reinvented himself as Nash Harvey, jingle composer and chronic bachelor, has returned to the scene of his first romantic crime. Despite the sisters'' scars and grudges, despite his platinum tongue and roving eye, this old flame becomes an improbable catalyst for the untried and the long overdue. The refined and level-headed Adele finds herself flirting with her boss—on public television. Entrepreneurial Kathleen is suddenly drinking cappuccino with Lorenz, the handsome doorman at the luxury high-rise where she owns a lingerie boutique. And Lois, the only sister to have embarked on the road to matrimony and, subsequently, divorce, revives her long-cherished notion that Harvey abandoned Adele rather than indulge his preference for another Dobbin. Both comic and compassionate, The Ladies'' Man has all of Lipman''s trademark wit, wattage, and social mischief—with an extra bite.

One-time popular and eye-catching Melinda LeBlanc finds her world as a successful florist is not enough.

From the acclaimed author of Isabel''s Bed comes a delightful collection of short stories. These wry and sassy tales illustrate the vulnerable heartbeat beneath the brash style of the eighties. Behind their professional self-assurance, Elinor Lipman''s characters question and fear, search and yearn for that most elusive of commodities--love.