How Should a Person Be?

By: Sheila Heti

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Paperback | 3 March 2014 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
320 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
2.1 x 13 x 19.7

Paperback

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An utterly cool and covetable new look for Sheila Heti's genre-defying novel of friendship, sex, and love in the new millennium, publishing alongside the paperback of Pure Colour in 2023

'It made me want to write' Sally Rooney
'A seriously strange but funny plunge into the quest for authenticity' Margaret Atwood
'A classic in the making' Stylist

Sheila's twenties were going to plan.

She got married.
She hosted parties.
A theatre asked her to write a play.

Then she realised that she didn't know how to write a play.
That her favourite part of the party was cleaning up after the party.
And that her marriage made her feel like she was banging into a brick wall.

So Sheila abandons her marriage and her play, befriends Margaux, a free and untortured painter, and begins sleeping with the dominating Israel, who's a genius at sex but not at art. She throws herself into recording them and everyone around her, investigating how they live, desperate to know, as she wanders, How Should a Person Be?

Using transcripts, real emails, plus heavy doses of fiction, Heti crafts an exciting, courageous, and mordantly funny tour through one woman's heart and mind.

LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION

Industry Reviews

Helen Fielding made it funny and fictional in Bridget Jones's Diary; Elizabeth Gilbert did it without laughs in Eat, Pray, Love. Now in this mashup of memoir, fiction, self-help and philosophy, Sheila Heti has added a bit of a story, quite a few blow jobs and some cheeky exclamation marks, and finally made it credible * Guardian *
A really amazing metafiction-meets-nonfiction novel * Lena Dunham, star and creator of HBO series 'Girls' *
A beguiling "novel from life" about creativity and authenticity * Guardian Pick of 2013 *
Funny, bawdy and fiercely original, this is the book everyone's talking about - and for good reason * Easy Living *
A shamelessly funny read that's got all of America talking * Grazia *
Part of a growing movement to explore the messiness, self-consciousness and doubt of young women who have been told the world offers them unprecedented opportunity, and who are discovering just what that means -- Kira Cochrane * G2 *
It will be one of the most talked-about books of 2013 * Irish Tatler, 2013 Hot List *
Original...hilarious... Part confessional, part play, part novel, and more-it's one wild ride...Think HBO'S Girls in book form * Marie Claire *
Utterly beguiling: blunt, charming, funny, and smart. Heti subtly weaves together ideas about sex, femininity and artistic ambition. Reading this genre-defying book was pure pleasure * David Shields, author of Reality Hunger *

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