Asking for a Friend Paperback by Kerry Clare

Product Details

• Publisher: Doubleday Canada (2023-09-05)
• Language: English
• Paperback: 312 pages
• ISBN-13: 9780385675642
• Item Weight: 306.18 grams
• Dimensions: 8.25 x 5.51 x 0.82 cm

For readers of J. Courtney Sullivan and Emma Straub, and for fans of Firefly Lane, comes a poignant and astute novel about life, love, and the ever-evolving nature of female friendship by the author of Waiting for a Star to Fall.

The bottom of Jess’s world is falling out. Cocooned in her dorm in the winter of 1998, she’s reeling, and wants to be left alone. But a chance encounter with the older, otherworldly, elusive Clara has Jess awestruck. Clara, newly returned from a two-year trek drifting around the world, is taking a stab at normalcy for once, and the place she starts is university, where she struggles to fit in. Upon meeting Jess, though, Clara feels an instant connection, and everything seems brighter. Soon, the two are inseparable, undeniable necessities in each other’s lives. But when tragedy strikes, they are unceremoniously torn apart, sent tumbling down different paths. And with each passing day, their unbreakable bond is tested more and more.

As they endure love and heartbreak, marriage, anxiety and isolation, and the complicated existence of motherhood, Jess and Clara must learn how to love each other through it all—and whether growing up inevitably means growing apart.

Spanning two decades, Asking for a Friend follows the tempestuous journey of female friendship, exploring whether its fundamentals—history, familiarity, loyalty—are enough to make the relationship everlasting.

About the Author

KERRY CLARE is an author, editor and book reviewer. Her first novel, Mitzi Bytes, was called "entertaining, engaging and timely" by the Toronto Star, who also noted that it "heralds the arrival of a fantastic, fun new novelist on the Canadian scene." She is the editor of The M Word: Conversations About Motherhood, which was published in 2014 to rave reviews, and in 2018 of selected stories for The Journey Prize Stories 30 with Sharon Bala and Zoey Leigh Peterson. A National Magazine Award-nominated essayist, Kerry is also editor of the Canadian books website 49thShelf.com, and writes about books and reading at her popular blog, Pickle Me This. She lives in Toronto with her family.