The Extraordinary "New York Times" Bestseller
In Californiaas central valley, five women and one man join to discuss Jane Austenas novels. Over the six months they get together, marriages are tested, affairs begin, unsuitable arrangements become suitable, and love happens. With her eye for the frailties of human behavior and her ear for the absurdities of social intercourse, Karen Joy Fowler has never been wittier nor her characters more appealing. The result is a delicious dissection of modern relationships.
Dedicated Austenites will delight in unearthing the echoes of Austen that run through the novel, but most readers will simply enjoy the vision and voice that, despite two centuries of separation, unite two great writers of brilliant social comedy.
aThis exquisite novel is bigger and more ambitious than it appearsa] Fowleras shrewdest, funniest fiction yet, a novel about how we engage with a novel. You donat have to be a student of Jane Austen to enjoy it, either. . . Lovers of Austen will relish this book, but I envy any reader who comes to it unfamiliar with her. Thereas no better introduction.a
aPatrick T. OaConnor, "The New York Times Book Review"
aKaren Joy Fowler creates a novel that is so winning, so touching, so delicately, slyly witty that admirers of Persuasion and Emma will simply sigh with happiness.a
aMichael Dirda, "The Washington Post Book World"
aStart quoting a few of Fowleras puckish lines and it becomes damnably difficult to stop. . . "The Jane Austen Book Club" amounts to a witty meditation on how the books we choose, choose us too.a
aDavid Kipen, "San Francisco Chronicle"
a"The Jane Austen Book Club" offers a sparkling rumination on the act of reading itself and how beloved books can serve as refuge, self-definition, snobbish barricades against other people or pathways out of the old self to a wider world. It is] a terrific comic novel about a closed society merrily transforming itself by reading.a
aMaureen Corrigan, NPRas "All Things Considered"
Fowler] does so terrific a job of bringing her characters to life that Austenas work falls away like a husk. Itas an impressive feat of homage, since Fowler essentially borrows Austenas great themesa]and makes them her own. Miss Austen would be proud.a
aJohn Freeman, "The Denver Post"
Industry Reviews
Praise for The Jane Austen Book Club "Ms. Fowler, an original and unexpectedly voiced novelist, takes her own place among the shining responders. Not just with comments of her own, though there are some excellent ones, but with the entire playful structure of her new novel."--Richard Eder, The New York Times
"If I could eat this nove, I would...A luxuriant pleasure!"--Alice Sebold
"It's natural to approach a novel titled The Jane Austen Book Club with caution, but Karen Joy Fowler's funny, erudite nvoel proved to be a surprise and a delight, a tribute to Austen that manages to capture her spirit."--The Boston Globe
"Karen Joy Fowler creates a novel that is so winning, so touching, so delicately, slyly witty that admirers of Persuasion and Emma will simply sigh with happiness."--Michael Dirda, The Washington Post Book World
"Start quoting a few of Fowler's puckish lines and it becomes damnably difficult to stop...The Jane Austen Book Club amounts to a witty meditation on how the books we choose, choose us too."--San Francisco Chronicle
"The Jane Austen Book Club offers a sparkling rumination on the act of reading itself and how beloved books can serve as refuge, self-definition, snobbish barricades against other people or pathways out of the old self to a wider world. [It is] a terrific comic novel about a closed society merrily transforming itself by reading."--Maureen Corrigan, NPR's All Things Considered
"[Fowler] does so terrific a job of bringing her characters to life that Austen's work falls away like a husk. It's an impressive feat of homage, since Fowler essentially borrowsAusten's great themes...and makes them her own. Miss Austen would be proud."--The Denver Post
