The Girls

THE INSTANT BESTSELLER

An indelible portrait of girls, the women they become, and that moment in life when everything can go horribly wrong

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY

The Washington Post

NPR

The Guardian

Entertainment Weekly

San Francisco Chronicle

Financial Times

Esquire

Newsweek

Vogue

Glamour

People

The Huffington Post

Elle

Harper's Bazaar

Time Out

BookPage

Publishers Weekly

Slate

Northern California, during the violent end of the 1960s. At the start of summer, a lonely and thoughtful teenager, Evie Boyd, sees a group of girls in the park, and is immediately caught by their freedom, their careless dress, their dangerous aura of abandon. Soon, Evie is in thrall to Suzanne, a mesmerizing older girl, and is drawn into the circle of a soon-to-be infamous cult and the man who is its charismatic leader. Hidden in the hills, their sprawling ranch is eerie and run down, but to Evie, it is exotic, thrilling, charged-a place where she feels desperate to be accepted. As she spends more time away from her mother and the rhythms of her daily life, and as her obsession with Suzanne intensifies, Evie does not realize she is coming closer and closer to unthinkable violence.

Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize

Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award

Shortlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

Emma Cline-One of Granta's Best of Young American Novelists

Praise for The Girls

"Spellbinding . . . a seductive and arresting coming-of-age story."-The New York Times Book Review

"Extraordinary . . . Debut novels like this are rare, indeed."-The Washington Post

"Hypnotic."-The Wall Street Journal

"Gorgeous."-Los Angeles Times

"Savage."-The Guardian

"Astonishing."-The Boston Globe

"Superbly written."-James Wood, The New Yorker

"Intensely consuming."-Richard Ford

"A spectacular achievement."-Lucy Atkins, The Times

"Thrilling."-Jennifer Egan

"Compelling and startling."-The Economist

Emma Cline's highly praised bestseller The Girls was shortlisted for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize and the John Leonard Award from the National Book Critics Circle. Her short story collection, Daddy, was called "brilliant" (WSJ). Cline's stories have been published in The…