The Book of George

Winner of the Gabe Hudson Prize
Shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction
The New Yorker Recommended Book of 2024
Named a Notable Fiction Book of 2024 by The Washington Post

“[A] deadpan, hilarious new novel . . . Greathead’s skewering of this 'specific kind of male arrogance' is deeply satisfying, but her finely layered portrait is not without pity―it’s strangely, unexpectedly humanizing.”―Oprah Daily

From the author of the critically acclaimed Laura & Emma comes a The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. for our times: Kate Greathead’s “mesmerizing” (Maria Semple) excavation of millennial masculinity, The Book of George.

If you haven’t had the misfortune of dating a George, you know someone who has. He’s a young man brimming with potential but incapable of following through; sweet yet noncommittal to his long-suffering girlfriend; distant from but still reliant on his mother; charmingly funny one minute, sullenly brooding the next. Here, Kate Greathead paints one particular, unforgettable George in a series of droll and surprisingly poignant snapshots of his life over two decades.

Despite his failings, it’s hard not to root for George at least a little. Beneath his cynicism is a reservoir of fondness for his girlfriend, Jenny, and her valiant willingness to put up with him. Each demonstration of his flaws is paired with a self-eviscerating comment. No one is more disappointed in him than himself (except maybe Jenny and his mother). As hilarious as it is resonant and as singular as it is universal, The Book of George is a deft, unexpectedly moving portrait of one man―but also countless others.