Excerpt from The Exceptions by Kate Zernike, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

It had been, Nancy thought as the heavy door closed behind her, a spectacular day.

She could have done without Crick groping her, but after the evening at Watson's she had almost forgotten about it. What filled her head instead was newfound assurance, confidence that she had found the meaning she had been looking for. She liked her private-school friends well enough, liked to go to their parties. But these other people were on a higher plane—the ideas they discussed, the questions about life they were poised to answer. She wouldn't quite say she felt at home in their world, at least not yet, but even to be at the edge of their conversations—it was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her.

Excerpted from The Exceptions by Kate Zernike. Copyright © 2023 by Kate Zernike. Excerpted by permission of Scribner. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.