Book Announcement: City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert

Bestselling author Elizabeth Gilbert has announced a new book called City of Girls, to be published by Bloomsbury in June 2019.

Elizabeth Gilbert is the number one bestselling author of Eat Pray Love and several other international bestselling books of fiction and non-fiction including The Signature of All Things which was longlisted for the Baileys Prize and shortlisted for the Wellcome Prize.

Alexandra Pringle, editor-in-chief at Bloomsbury says, ‘After over a decade as Liz’s UK editor, you would think I had grown used to how brilliant she is. But nothing could quite prepare me for the glory of City of Girls. It’s just a sublime novel, colourful, glittering, moving, witty and wise. On every page there is delight and surprise. It deserves to be remembered as one of the all-time-great coming-of-age novels, and Vivian as one of the all-time-great twentieth-century heroines. I cannot wait for the world to fall in love with this book as we have.’

‘For years, I have wanted to write a novel about women who have lots of sex, and who like it, and whose lives aren’t destroyed by it. (You might be surprised at how difficult it is to find that storyline in the annals of literature.) I also wanted to write a novel about New York in the 1940s, which I think of as the most glamorous moment in this city’s history. Out of those two desires, City of Girls was born. I had the most wonderful time researching the story and being able to—for instance—interview 95-year-old former showgirls about their wild youth and reckless ways. I disappeared completely into this book, and I hope that readers will, too. I like to think of this novel as a tray of gin fizzes, which people can knock back and enjoy with abandon.’ – Elizabeth Gilbert

About the book: It is the summer of 1940. Nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris arrives in New York with her suitcase and sewing machine, exiled by her despairing parents. Although her quicksilver talents with a needle and commitment to mastering the perfect hair roll have been deemed insufficient for her to pass into her sophomore year of Vassar, she soon finds gainful employment as the self-appointed seamstress at the Lily Playhouse, her unconventional Aunt Peg’s charmingly disreputable Manhattan revue theatre. There, Vivian quickly becomes the toast of the showgirls, transforming the trash and tinsel only fit for the cheap seats into creations for goddesses. Exile in New York is no exile at all: here in this strange wartime city of girls, Vivian and her girlfriends mean to drink the heady highball of life itself to the last drop. But there are hard lessons to be learned, and bitterly regrettable mistakes to be made. Vivian sees that to live the life that she wants, she must live many lives, ceaselessly and ingeniously making them new.

Click here to order your copy of City of Girls

City of Girls

by Elizabeth Gilbert

It is the summer of 1940.

Nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris arrives in New York with her suitcase and sewing machine, exiled by her despairing parents. Although her quicksilver talents with a needle and commitment to mastering the perfect hair roll have been deemed insufficient for her to pass into her sophomore year of Vassar, she soon finds gainful employment as the self-appointed seamstress at the Lily Playhouse, her unconventional Aunt Peg’s charmingly disreputable Manhattan revue theatre.

There, Vivian quickly becomes the toast of the showgirls, transforming the trash and tinsel only fit for the cheap seats into creations for goddesses. Exile in New York is no exile at all: here in this strange wartime city of girls, Vivian and her girlfriends mean to drink the heady highball of life itself to the last drop. But there are hard lessons to be learned, and bitterly regrettable mistakes to be made. Vivian sees that to live the life that she wants, she must live many lives, ceaselessly and ingeniously making them new.

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Sarah McDuling

Sarah McDuling is Booktopia's Category Manager for Children's and Young Adult Books. She has been in the bookselling game for almost a decade and a dedicated booklover since birth (potentially longer). At her happiest when reading a book, Sarah also enjoys talking/writing/tweeting about books. In her spare time, she often likes to buy a lot of books and take photographs of books. You can follow her on Twitter and Instragram @sarahmcduling

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