Excerpt from Ecstasy by Ivy Pochoda, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Back then Hedy hid behind cheap drugstore frames-disguising the aftermath of the nights that didn't end as she broke so many dawns she shattered calendars. A drama queen, of course. Louder, livelier than everyone else. The sunglasses were part of it all.

Then came the upgrade-sunglasses worn even while sober. Her eyes hurting. Always hurting. Tripping on the street. Crashing her car.

Rumors that she was out of control. No longer a party person but a drunk. No longer amusing but an addict.

By the time Hedy received her diagnosis at twenty-six, Lena had already stumbled into a hasty marriage. Chosen extreme financial stability over the wild nights, the hostels, the children-of-god-Goa-trance-full-moon mania.

Aren't you glad you stopped wasting your twenties, Stavros said to her on their wedding night. She should have known right then.

I didn't waste a day. But she didn't say it, certain that he knew better. He hadn't wasted his twenties. He'd dropped out of hospitality school in Hartford, Connecticut, and built an empire. Impressive for the son of an immigrant cabdriver. Not all of it was on the level-but those were secrets Lena learned to keep. Business is dirty, Stavros had told her. But our lives are clean.

She and Hedy drifted.

They saw each other every few years-more awkward each time. Lena dressed in smart tapered pants, Hermès bangles, luxe flats. A costume at first. Then armor against the realization she'd made a mistake. Hedy in harem pants, a knockoff bag trimmed with things that dangled and chimed, platform sneakers. But always designer sunglasses. By the time I'm sixty-lights out, she told Lena. By then I'll have seen everything.

A collectible-that's what Lena had become.

Nearly all of Stavros's friends had one-a dancer or a petite violist who hadn't made the cut. A tidy curiosity. There was Walter Salmon in Bermuda married to a Muscovite ballerina who defected for a better life in a Caribbean fortress. There was Leonard Stillman in Texas. who snagged the lead violist from the Shanghai Philharmonic. And Stavros, who got Lena and never revealed that she hadn't made the cut at the Frankfurt ballet.

Small mercies.


Drew stands, checking on whatever Hedy is up to at the gate.

This is his show. His trip. Lena and Hedy are only along for the ride as he slides into his father's shoes, finishing what Stavros started.

Excerpted from Ecstasy by Ivy Pochoda. Copyright © 2025 by Ivy Pochoda. Excerpted by permission of G.P. Putnam's Sons. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.