In this compassionate, wise, and comical debut, Kate Christensen gives an engaging and authentic voice to a new generation of single urban women.
Claudia Steiner never intended for her life to become such a disaster. At the age of twenty-nine she finds herself serving as secretary to an insane, aging socialite who barks orders from her toilet, specializes in devastating backhanded remarks, and expects Claudia to ghostwrite her best-selling novels. Her job pays enough to keep her in overpriced cocktails, cabs, and take-out but doesn't cover the rent on her roach-infested apartment or keep...

National Bestseller and Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
Oscar Feldman, the renowned figurative painter, has passed away. As his obituary notes, Oscar is survived by his wife, Abigail, their son, Ethan, and his sister, the well-known abstract painter Maxine Feldman. What the obituary does not note, however, is that Oscar is also survived by his longtime mistress, Teddy St. Cloud, and their daughters.
As two biographers interview the women in an attempt to set the record straight, the open secret of his affair reaches a boiling point and a devastating skeleton...

Inspired by her new home in New England and the slow food movement re-energizing sustainable farming, Kate Christensen picks up where she left off in her last memoir, Blue Plate Special. In an ode to How to Cook a Wolf, M.F.K. Fisher's classic culinary guide about surviving poverty and war with grace, Christensen creates a tempting, modern stew that will delight readers as only she can, using the magic ingredients of true love, personal appetite, humor, history, and original recipes. Christensen also examines the dilemma of food scarcity in a time of possible climate collapse, turning to her...