Emma Straub

"What if you could take a vacation to your past, without the filter of memory? What would you give to go back in time and relive your youth, in person, with the people who shared it? On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice's life isn't terrible. She likesher job, even if it isn't exactly the one she expected. She's happy with her apartment, her romantic status, her independence, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But something is missing. Her...

"From the New York Times' bestselling author of The Vacationers, a smart, highly entertaining novel about a tight-knit group of friends from college--their own kids now going to college--and what it means to finally grow up well after adulthood has set in. Friends and former college bandmates Elizabeth and Andrew and Zoe have watched one another marry, buy real estate, and start businesses and families, all while trying to hold on to the identities...

In 1920, Elsa Emerson, the youngest and blondest of three sisters, is born in Door County, Wisconsin. Married in her teens, she flees to Los Angeles and is discovered by one of the most powerful executives in Hollywood. Refashioned as an exotic brunette and renamed Laura Lamont, she experiences all the glamour of stardom. But ultimately, her story is a timeless one of a woman trying to balance career, family, and personal happiness.

The author of Bel Canto and Truth & Beauty talks with Jane Hamilton (A Map of the World; The Short History of a Prince) and delves deeply into the backstory of her latest creation, a thought-provoking literary thriller, set deep in the Amazon jungle, with fascinating characters that defy our expectations, and chockful of suspense, romance, and betrayal.