Herself, Of Course
Sign In or Register Now to see if this title is available for request.
Buy on Bookshop.org Buy on WaterstonesSend NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app
1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 2 Feb 2027 | Archive Date 9 Feb 2027
Talking about this book? Use #HerselfOfCourse #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!
Description
A sparkling novel about a writer’s life, told in three remarkable acts – by the bestselling and beloved chronicler of women’s lives
New York, 1980. For Victoria, life is only just starting. On a hot afternoon, she sits uncomfortably on a radiator as an attractive older man takes her photo for the publication of her first novel.
Something sparks in the hot air, and the afternoon becomes a night exploring the city together: meeting her writing heroine at a party, escaping for martinis, eating dumplings in Chinatown, ordering espresso in Little Italy, and riding the Staten Island ferry back and forth and back again.
When we measure out our lives, which are the encounters that change us? What does the female artist have to sacrifice to live the life she needs to? What does it mean to become an adult and to grow old, not simply as a woman but as an artist and a reader?
As we follow Victoria (or V., or later, Vicky) through the years, through love, loss and a final encounter with one of the ghosts of her past, we live life as it is lived: in long arcs of triumph, sorrow and regret.
Heartbreaking and consoling, bittersweet and wise, Herself, Of Course confirms McDermott as a masterful chronicler of the human experience.
Advance Praise
'Full of life, loves and loss. Just beautiful' CLAIRE FULLER
Praise for Alice McDermott
'Beautifully written, heart-wrenching and funny' SUNDAY TIMES
'One of our greatest writers' ANN PATCHETT
'Her writing has a luminous kind of clarity' RACHEL JOYCE
'For four decades, McDermott has written one exquisite novel after another' ESQUIRE
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781037213564 |
| PRICE | £18.99 (GBP) |
| PAGES | 336 |
Available on NetGalley
Available to Buy
Buy on Bookshop.org Buy on WaterstonesAverage rating from 5 members
Featured Reviews
Camille O, Librarian
Herself Of Course by Alice McDermott is a novel that will be appreciated by any readers who are interested in uncovering the world of writers and what makes them tick.
Radhika H, Media/Journalist
This is a novel...worth continuing with. Because the first section is in a slightly pastichy 1980s style - which I found a little hard to cope with *until* I realised how it's part of the overall narrative, which works from the 1980s through to present day. I found it surprisingly good and will be recommending it.
Reviewer 299370
1980 New York City and Victoria is posing in a trendy warehouse apartment on a photo shoot for her debut novel which is being widely hyped. The photographer takes her to a party full of actors, writers and artists, old and new, many eager to meet the new girl in town and we follow Victoria through the decades as she navigates the literary world and tries to find balance in her life.
This is story that improved as time went on. The first section detailing the photo shoot and night in New York felt a "painting by numbers" to me but as Vicky's life story evolved the narrative became more interesting and nuanced. This created a very satisfying read and a window into the ups and downs and the machinations of a literary life. Alice McDermott is such a well established writer with a long storied career that of course she would write an interesting tale.
Readers who liked this book also liked:
Valeria Luiselli
General Fiction (Adult), Multicultural Interest, Women's Fiction
