American Mermaid

By Julia Langbein

Book Overview

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR - "Sublime." --New York Times Book Review

"Brilliantly sharp, funny, and thought-provoking, the gripping story of a woman trying to find her way in our chaotic world." --Madeline Miller, bestselling author of Circe

Broke English teacher Penelope Schleeman is as surprised as anyone when her feminist, eco-warrior novel American Mermaid becomes a best-seller. But when Hollywood insists she convert her fierce, androgynous protagonist into to a teen sex object in a clamshell bra, strange things start to happen. Is Penelope losing her mind, or has her fictional mermaid come to life, enacting revenge against society's limited view of what a woman can and should be?

American Mermaid follows a young woman braving the casual slights and cruel calculations of a winner-take-all society and discovering a beating heart in her own fiction: a new kind of hero who fights to keep her voice and choose her place. A hilarious story about deep things, American Mermaid asks how far we'll go to protect the parts of ourselves that are not for sale.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385549679
• ISBN13: 9780385549677
• Release Date: March 2023
• Publisher: Doubleday Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.5"