This winter's cathartic read: a story that feels familiar yet wholly original, like every heartbreak ever

Tender and wise . . . Pitoniak's voice is stylish and authentic, and perfect for exploring this rich territory: youth and love and New York City

A thoroughly modern love story. Original and engaging. I absolutely loved it

An emotional page-turner

This stands out for its beautiful writing, emotional depth and evocative feel

An unflinchingly honest tale of two young people trying to navigate expectations and learning to live with their own mistakes. A compelling and memorable debut

The Futures reminded me of Brightness Falls, Jay McInerney's great novel of New York, for Pitoniak, like McInerney, possesses an instinctual understanding of the mechanisms that make the city run and a knack for embracing her characters' thornier sides. Utterly enjoyable

The Futures is a haunting story of a relationship going wrong, set against the backdrop of a world that feels like it has gone utterly wrong, too. This will appeal to anybody who's been an early twenty-something and not known where life will go next. I loved it

The Futures is a love story and so much more. It captures the heartaches and exhilarations of early adulthood with a keen eye, a big heart, superb writing and an artfully intricate plot. This is a book for people of all ages looking for a place in the world, and Anna Pitoniak is a young novelist with some serious writing chops

Anna Pitoniak's debut novel, The Futures, is the perfect cocktail of smart prose, heartwarming characters, and unmatched savvy about modern city life. Like The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. or A Fortunate Age, this book will amaze and elate you

Mesmerizing . . . The novel's alternating structure is hypnotic. Pitoniak is an absolute ventriloquist, completely inhabiting the voice of the two protagonists - their ambitions, anxieties, pettiness, sadness, and great love for one another. I couldn't put it down

Set amid the 2008 financial collapse, Pitoniak's assured debut explores the cost of realizing-and misinterpreting-one's dreams . . . Navigating terrain-love and youth, college and city life-that's often oversimplified, Pitoniak eschews cliché for nuanced characterization and sharply observed detail. Evan and Julia ring true as 20-somethings, but Pitoniak's novel also speaks to anyone who has searched among possible futures for the way back to what Julia calls 'the person I had been all along'

Pitoniak's well-plotted, character-driven, interior-focused novel captures the knowable angst of the unknowable possibilities of modern young adulthood

Pitoniak expertly captures both the excitement and the oppressive darkness of being young and at sea in New York City, the unsettlingly thin line between freedom and free fall. Deeply empathetic-and always engaging. A bittersweet coming-of-age drama and a portrait of an era

The Futures takes place on the cusp of the 2008 market crash, and so perfectly encapsulates that time of life when everything was just beginning, when you had no idea who you were or where you were going

Pitoniak maintains her keen eye for the universal insecurities facing her generation today, from romantic uncertainties and the relative benefits and downsides of hedge fund and nonprofit jobs to the emotional effort it requires to negotiate the predetermined facts of one's upbringing with the person one chooses to become

Pitoniak's debut focuses on that time of life that is at turns both exhilarating and terrifying: right after getting out of college, when you're forced to confront who you are and who you want to be, when you know life is just beginning, but you're also starting to feel like many of your options are fading away

Pitoniak's precise and incisive powers of observation gives us a book with startling grace notes

Anna Pitoniak's inspired debut centers on two recent college grads who move to New York City together during the 2008 recession and watch their relationship change drastically

Fresh, intelligent romantic fiction with a sparklingly escapist setting

Utterly romantic

Combines a wonderful setting with the poignancy of self-discovery and a touching romance

Brilliant, warm and beautifully judged - I raced through it

A lovely, absorbing novel, full of the beauty and mystery of the Mojacar

A writing powerhouse

Heart-warming and wonderfully romantic

The perfect getaway read

Beautiful, life-affirming stories that whisk you away and make you fall in love

Cullen effectively floods her words with music . . . surely strik[ing] chords in many of us . . . [The Lost Letters of William Woolf] genuinely leave[s] one wanting more

We're going to be talking to you for the next forty years

Generous, surprising, full of heart, Cullen's debut leaves you flooded with warmth and gratitude for all the love letters you ever received and pure regret for all the ones you never sent

A gorgeous love story about the multitude of possibilities and choices in our lives-and how by saying hello to one path, we say goodbye to another. The lost stories in the Dead Letters Depot moved me greatly. A delightful romantic and original debut

A love-letter to letters and a brilliantly written, moving homage to the power of words, The Lost Letters of William Woolf celebrates the magic of pen and paper'

The Lost Letters of William Woolf is a beautiful novel, more so because at times it feels like a book out of time, capitalising on the nostalgia of a time before smartphones, emails and Google. It is a remarkably refreshing read and certainly an interesting one - and it's a debut work that marks Helen Cullen as an author worth watching

Will warm your cockles and restore your faith

Not only is it a great story with funny, loveable characters, it made me laugh out loud

The scene is set for a great unravelling. People running from their pasts, presents and futures - what more could one ask for?

Skilful. Witty and fast-paced

Great fun

An insightful, twisty thriller set in a luxury retreat cut off from the outside world

Praise for Liane Moriarty

Wise, honest, beautifully observed. One of the few writers I'll drop anything for

Staggeringly brilliant, literally unputdownable

Like drinking a pink cosmo laced with arsenic . . . a fun, engaging and sometimes disturbing read

Keeps you guessing until the very end - perfect summer read

Moriarty writes vividly, wittily and wickedly

Straight-from-life characters, knife-sharp insight and almost unbearable suspense will have you racing through it

As brilliantly accomplished as it is dark, twisty and compulsive

Riveting drama packed with suspense and secrets

Perfect

A hell of a good book. Funny and scary

Fascinating and compassionate

I loved every line of it

Funny and captivating

A cracking story cleverly told

Every single one of her books is a great read

An ideal summer read

Book Club Summer 2019 Pick