Barbara The Slut And Other People

Description

'Astonishing - one of those rare books that manages to be both poignant and hilarious. The last time we had a debut this big was Junot Diaz with 'Drown'. Holmes is a major talent.' Philipp Meyer A fresh, honest, and darkly funny debut collection about family, friends, and lovers, and the flaws that make us most human. One woman takes a job selling sex toys in San Francisco rather than embark on the law career she pursued only for the sake of her father. Another realises she much prefers the company of her pit bull - and herself - to the neurotic foreign fling who won't decamp from her apartment. A daughter hauls a suitcase of lingerie to Mexico for her flighty, estranged mother to resell there, wondering whether her personal mission - to come out - is worth the same effort. And Barbara, a young woman with an autistic brother, a Princeton acceptance letter, and a love of sex navigates her high school's toxic, slut-shaming culture with open eyes. Fearless, candid, and incredibly funny, Lauren Holmes is a newcomer who writes like a master. She tackles eros and intimacy with a deceptively light touch, a keen awareness of how their nervous systems tangle and sometimes short-circuit, and a genius for revealing our most vulnerable, spirited selves. With heart, sass, and pitch-perfect characters, BARBARA THE SLUT is a head-turning debut from a writer with a limitless career before her.

Reviews

'A wonderful debut from a profound and sassy new voice ...uncommonly perceptive, deeply felt, and at the same time exceedingly funny. Lauren Holmes is a young writer of great talent, and BARBARA THE SLUT is a book that marks the beginning of a long literary career.' Colum McCann, author of TransAtlantic 'It's been a long time since I've read a collection of stories in one sitting-but this is a book I couldn't put down ... An outstanding debut, refreshing and exciting, complex and really funny.' Nathan Englander, author of What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank 'Hilarious and moving and powerful ... She's articulating with devastating precision something unique about the strange times we live in, something unique about who we are and who we become as we navigate our way through the demands of our friends, our families, our culture, and the wild, unreasonable desires that well up within us.' Phil Klay, author of Redeployment 'Without so much as a beat out of place, Barbara the Slut and Other People is a collection of piercing insight, sublime wit and powerful depth. These stories will make you fall in love, break your heart, and build you up again. Lauren Holmes's writing is taut and scalpel-like and like the best practitioners, sends pulses into the dark underwaters of the human psyche while we sit at the page and listen for the echo.' Bill Cheng, author of Southern Cross the Dog 'Lauren Holmes writes my all-time favorite brand of fiction: Deceptively Simple. These are stories that you can't help but inhale, then trouble over gloriously after they've ended.' Alicia Erian, author of Towelhead

Author description

Lauren Holmes grew up in upstate New York. She received a BA from Wellesley College and an MFA from Hunter College, where she was a Hertog Fellow and a teaching fellow. Her work has appeared in Granta, where she was a 2014 New Voice, and in Guernica. Holmes lives in New York's Hudson Valley.