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Writers & Lovers while describing the intense effort of putting words in order, feels effortless, or at least like an unconscious natural process. King’s sentences are like layers of silt and pebbles condensed into sedimentary rock — distinct from one another but fitted into an indestructible whole.
— Los Angeles Times, By Hillary Kelly, March 1, 2020
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.
Praise for Writers & Lovers
"My favourite 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
“Gorgeous!”
— Elizabeth Strout, author Olive, Again
"Writers & Lovers is a portrait of the artist as a young woman. Lily King writes masterfully about desire and loss, creativity and inspiration, and how each overlaps and influences the other. I found myself reading slowly, underlining phrases, wanting to linger in the world of this novel. Her insights about love-how it is elusive and ineffable-and about grief-how it is something that you live inside-took my breath away."
— Christina Baker Kline, author of A Piece of the World
"Writers & Lovers stole my heart from its first pages. I am in love with this book. In. Love. This deep dive of a novel will stay with me forever."
— Elin Hilderbrand, author of Summer of '69
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, author of Modern Lovers
"Lily King is one of our great literary treasures and Writers & Lovers is suffused with her brilliance. It is captivating, potent, incisive, and wise, a moving story of grief, and recovering from grief, and of a young woman finding her courage for life."
— Madeline Miller, author of Circe
Reviews
“One of the elements of your book I found particularly beautiful was the specificity of Casey’s grief, the way an old folk song or group of geese remind her so viscerally of her mother. Everyone grieves differently, of course, but I’m wondering how your own experience influenced the writing of those moments. And how you chose to convey Casey’s grief in this way.?”
“King’s novel is help of a sort, an unmistakable broadside against fiction’s love affair with macho strivers, even — or especially — when layers of lyricism and tenderness coat their machismo.”
— New York Times, Book of the Times, March 10, 2020, by John Williams
Droll Wit And Delightful Details Make 'Writers & Lovers' A Winning Read.
“Jane Austen said, ‘Man has the advantage of choice; woman only the power of refusal,’ but Casey is determined to hold out for a plot on her own terms. The result is an absolute delight, the kind of happiness that sometimes slingshots out of despair with such force you can’t help but cheer, amazed.”
— The Washington Post, March 4, 2020, by Ron Charles, host of Totally Hip Book Review
“I saw a bubble of hope in the wreck of Casey’s life that made me want to find out how she turns it all into something that floats. Also, I love books about wait staff. And writers.”
“Writers & Lovers, while describing the intense effort of putting words in order, feels effortless, or at least like an unconscious natural process. King’s sentences are like layers of silt and pebbles condensed into sedimentary rock — distinct from one another but fitted into an indestructible whole.”
— Los Angeles Times, By Hillary Kelly, March 1, 2020
“The novel is a meditation on trying itself: to stay alive, to love, to care. That point feels so fresh, so powerfully diametrically opposed to the readily available cynicism we’ve been feasting on.”
— Boston Globe
‘Writers & Lovers’ Review: Kidding on the Square In Lily King’s latest, a young writer adrift in Cambridge, Mass., fights off doubts about the life she’s chosen.
— Wall Street Journal, by By Maureen Corrigan, Feb. 28, 2020
Elegant, droll… This meditation on the passing of youth is touching and ruefully funny.
— Publishers Weekly
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)
King is one of those rare writers who can entwine sadness, hilarity and burning fury in the briefest of moments.
— BookPage (starred)
The characters feel like flesh and blood humans. The specificity with which she describes the nuances of working in a restaurant—all spot-on. You’re right there with her, and she makes for great company.
– Katie Yee, Book Marks Assistant Editor
[A] charmingly written coming of age story.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred)
King leaves no barrier between readers and smart, genuine, cynical, and funny Casey. A closely observed tale of finding oneself, and one's voice, while working through grief.
— Booklist (starred)
One of our greatest writers about desire… This novel will become a defining classic for struggling young writers.
— Vulture, 32 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2020
