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

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: 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