The Girls - Hardcover

In person, Fred Busch is ebullient, charming, and wickedly funny. In his writing, he is a superlative craftsman. Even knowing how witty and wise he is, and even having enjoyed reading his beautifully wrought short stories, I was not prepared for the exquisitely skillful rendering of love, devotion, despair and suspense that Busch give in GIRLS. The profound ways in which Busch depicts relationships between men and women, the subtle, wordless communications, the many layers of sadness and joy, resentment and support, absolutely take my breath away in admiration. The inner emotional landscape of GIRL's characters is mirrored in the sere, cold, wintry, physical landscape in which they all struggle and search, haunted by lost and dead relationships. As Mr. Busch's former editor-in-chief, I begged his wonderful editor, Shaye Areheart, to influence Fred to write more books about the lead character in GIRLS, a security guard. Maybe you readers will help us convince him.
Leslie Meredith
Executive Editor & Divisional Vice President
Ballantine Wellspring

COMPELLING NOVEL...UNFLINCHINGLY REAL... INTIMATE IN A COMPLETELY DISARMING WAY."
--Detroit News
Pete Chickery is dead. It was sudden, it was violent, and it was by his own wife's hand. Why would Jessie Chickery, the prettiest, most enviable "girl" in her fortysomething set, take the life of the charming, sexy husband she obsessively loved?
Everyone loved Pete. All the guys he grew up with--and their wives. Especially their wives, his wife's best friends. They are home-loving Ellen, tough-talking Tee, New York actress Frances, Jessie's sister Anne, and Pete's sister Anita--and now each tells the untold story of how Pete meant the world to her, how he made her feel adored, special, and satisfied. He was everything to everyone, but he wasn't enough--or he was just too much of a good thing....

"ONE OF THOSE BOOKS THAT IS HARD TO LEAVE BEHIND."
--The Washington Post Book World
"KAGAN'S KEEN EAR FOR DIALOGUE SERVES HER WELL....SHE PIT