A finalist for the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award here is an
evocative novel about female friendship in the glittering 1980s. One of The Atlantic s Great
American Novels of the Past 100 Years Alison and Veronica meet amid the nocturnal glamour of
1980s New York: One is a young model stumbling away from the wreck of her career the other an
eccentric middle-aged office temp. Over the next twenty years their friendship will encompass
narcissism and tenderness exploitation and self-sacrifice love and mortality. Moving
seamlessly from present and past casting a fierce yet compassionate eye on two eras and their
fixations the result is a work of timeless depth and moral power.
