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A Novel
by Harriet Lane
In this thrilling next novel from the acclaimed author of Alys, Always, and Her, a chance encounter draws two women from different worlds into an increasingly toxic friendship.
"I look. I can't stop looking. That's the deal, isn't it? We all know that's how it works. If someone wants to be seen—and oh, how they want to be seen—then someone has to watch."
Ruth is alone, unnoticed, and at a loss: her marriage has ended, her daughter is leaving home, and her job is leading nowhere.
But luckily Sookie is back in her life–vivid, self-assured Sookie, who never spared the time for Ruth when they were teenagers, but who now seems to want to be friends. But as Ruth is caught up in Sookie's life, she sees that everything is not as Instagrammable as Sookie would have you believe. As the truth about Sookie becomes clearer, so too does the choice Ruth will have to make.
Unputdownable, spiky, and subtle, Other People's Fun is a novel about modern life, from the little lies we tell our neighbors, friends, families, and ourselves to the hall of mirrors that is social media. Filled with Harriet Lane's trademark creeping unease and forensic observation, this page-turner considers how desperately we want others to see us as we are—and what happens when they finally do.
"A subplot about a sex abuse scandal at their old high school feels shoehorned in, but the narrative's rickety structure is made up for by the women's increasingly complex series of power plays. Like an influencer's feed, this is hard to look away from." —Publishers Weekly
"Examines the gulf between how people present themselves and how others remember them. Through Ruth's sharp, often uneasy gaze, Lane explores themes of belonging, self-erasure, and the desperate desire to be seen. The result is sharp, unsettling, and quietly devastating, reminding us how much of our sense of self may be bound up in other people's fun." ―Booklist
"Biting yet entertaining... . It is also a contemporary fable about the role social media plays in the lives of people in a look-at-me world." ―Library Journal
"Thrilling, sharp, and hugely interesting. Like Jean Rhys and Patricia Highsmith, Harriet Lane writes with a gripping, inexorable sense of tension. Other People's Fun is very smart and darkly funny, a brilliant take on displacement, envy, and artifice. I couldn't put it down." ―Flynn Berry, author of Northern Spy
"Spiky and atmospheric. A smartly-observed meditation on self-presentation and female friendships." ―Sarah Harman, author of All the Other Mothers Hate Me
This information about Other People's Fun was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Harriet Lane has worked as an editor and staff writer at Tatler and the Observer and has also written for the Guardian, the Telegraph and Vogue. She is the author of two other novels, Alys, Always and Her. She lives in North London.
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