2020 British Book Award Debut Book of the Year
2020 British Book Award Overall Book of the Year
2019 Costa Book Award for Best First Novel (nominee)
*NOW A HULU ORIGINAL SERIES*
*ONE of NPR’s and TIME’s BEST BOOKS of the YEAR * NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK of the YEAR by WOMAN’S DAY, NEWSDAY, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, BUSTLE, and BOOK RIOT!*
“A book that sneaks up on you...I am hooked.” —Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author
This acclaimed and “welcome debut from a seriously talented author” (New York Post) is a disarmingly honest, unapologetically black, and undeniably witty novel that will speak to those who have gone looking for love and found something very different in its place.
Queenie Jenkins is a twenty-five-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle class peers. After a messy break up from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places…including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth.
As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?”—all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.
“A must-read novel about sex, selfhood, and the best friendships that get us through it all” (Candace Bushnell, New York Times bestselling author), Queenie is a remarkably relatable exploration of what it means to be a modern woman searching for meaning in today’s world.
Genre: Literary Fiction
*ONE of NPR’s and TIME’s BEST BOOKS of the YEAR * NAMED A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK of the YEAR by WOMAN’S DAY, NEWSDAY, PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, BUSTLE, and BOOK RIOT!*
“A book that sneaks up on you...I am hooked.” —Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author
This acclaimed and “welcome debut from a seriously talented author” (New York Post) is a disarmingly honest, unapologetically black, and undeniably witty novel that will speak to those who have gone looking for love and found something very different in its place.
Queenie Jenkins is a twenty-five-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle class peers. After a messy break up from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places…including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth.
As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?”—all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.
“A must-read novel about sex, selfhood, and the best friendships that get us through it all” (Candace Bushnell, New York Times bestselling author), Queenie is a remarkably relatable exploration of what it means to be a modern woman searching for meaning in today’s world.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"Candice Carty-Williams is a fantastic new writer who has written a deliciously funny, characterful, topical, and thrilling novel for our times." - Bernardine Evaristo
"Queenie is the best mate we all want—funny, sharp, and more than a little vulnerable. I loved climbing inside her mind and wish I could have stayed longer. I adored this novel." - Stacey Halls
"Brilliant, timely, funny, heartbreaking." - Jojo Moyes
"Queenie has all the things you want in a debut novel—a startlingly fresh voice, characters you fall in love with from the very first page, and a joyous turn of phrase that makes this book almost impossible to put down. In turns hilariously funny and quietly devastating, Queenie is an important, timely story." - Louise O'Neill
"My favorite novel this year. Queenie is the sort of novel you just can’t stop talking about and want everyone you know to read. Snort your tea out funny one moment and utterly heart breaking the next, (and with the best cast of characters you’ll read all year), I absolutely loved it. I can’t wait to read whatever Candice writes next. If there is anything right in the world, Candice Carty-Williams is going to be a literary superstar." - AJ Pearce
"Hilarious and off the wall and tender." - Nikesh Shukla
"Adorable, funny, heartbreaking. People are going to love it." - Nina Stibbe
"A really special book with much to say about black female identity, sexual politics, group chats, emotional becoming in a way that feels totally unforced. Filthy, funny, and profound." - Sharlene Teo
"This book isn't even out yet and people are talking about it. Written by a new and exciting young woman, it's articulate, brave and, in the new parlance, 'woke.' Funny, wise, and of the moment, this book and this writer are the ones to watch." - Kit de Waal
"So raw and well-written and painfully relatable. It's also clever and funny and has the most glorious cover." - Ruth Ware
"Queenie is the best mate we all want—funny, sharp, and more than a little vulnerable. I loved climbing inside her mind and wish I could have stayed longer. I adored this novel." - Stacey Halls
"Brilliant, timely, funny, heartbreaking." - Jojo Moyes
"Queenie has all the things you want in a debut novel—a startlingly fresh voice, characters you fall in love with from the very first page, and a joyous turn of phrase that makes this book almost impossible to put down. In turns hilariously funny and quietly devastating, Queenie is an important, timely story." - Louise O'Neill
"My favorite novel this year. Queenie is the sort of novel you just can’t stop talking about and want everyone you know to read. Snort your tea out funny one moment and utterly heart breaking the next, (and with the best cast of characters you’ll read all year), I absolutely loved it. I can’t wait to read whatever Candice writes next. If there is anything right in the world, Candice Carty-Williams is going to be a literary superstar." - AJ Pearce
"Hilarious and off the wall and tender." - Nikesh Shukla
"Adorable, funny, heartbreaking. People are going to love it." - Nina Stibbe
"A really special book with much to say about black female identity, sexual politics, group chats, emotional becoming in a way that feels totally unforced. Filthy, funny, and profound." - Sharlene Teo
"This book isn't even out yet and people are talking about it. Written by a new and exciting young woman, it's articulate, brave and, in the new parlance, 'woke.' Funny, wise, and of the moment, this book and this writer are the ones to watch." - Kit de Waal
"So raw and well-written and painfully relatable. It's also clever and funny and has the most glorious cover." - Ruth Ware
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Used availability for Candice Carty-Williams's Queenie