Woman No. 17

A sinister, sexy noir about art, motherhood, and the intensity of female friendships, set in the posh hills above Los Angeles, from the New York Times best-selling author of California.

High in the Hollywood Hills, writer Lady Daniels has decided to take a break from her husband. Left alone with her children, she's going to need a hand taking care of her young son if she's ever going to finish her memoir.

In response to a Craigslist ad, S arrives, a magnetic young artist who will live in the secluded guesthouse out back, care for Lady's toddler, Devin, and keep a watchful eye on her teenage son, Seth. S performs her day job beautifully, quickly drawing the entire family into her orbit and becoming a confidante for Lady.

But in the heat of the summer, S's connection to Lady's older son takes a disturbing and possibly destructive turn. And as Lady and S move closer to one another, the glossy veneer of Lady's privileged life begins to crack, threatening to expose old secrets that she has been keeping from her family. Meanwhile, S is protecting secrets of her own, about her real motivation for taking the job. S and Lady are both playing a careful game, and every move they make endangers the things they hold most dear.

Darkly comic, twisty and tense, this mesmerizing new novel defies expectation and proves Edan Lepucki to be one of the most talented and exciting voices of her generation.

Genre: Literary Fiction

"Taut as a thriller (with plenty of sex and secrets), Woman No. 17 raises big questions about identity, art, ethics, parenthood, and more. In Edan Lepucki's hands, the philosophical is transformed into a page turner; I don't know how she does it." - Rumaan Alam

"In her arresting debut novel, Edan Lepucki conjures a lush, intricate, deeply disturbing vision of the future, then masterfully exploits its dramatic possibilities." - Jennifer Egan

"I firmly believe that Edan Lepucki is on the cusp of a long, strong career in American letters." - Ben Fountain

"Edan Lepucki shows herself to be a sharp-eyed chronicler of our modern world." - Celeste Ng

"Edan Lepucki tells her tale with preternatural clarity and total believability." - Robin Sloan

"Edan Lepucki is the very best kind of writer: simultaneously generous and precise. I am long been an admirer of her prose, but this book---this book, this massive, brilliant book---is a four alarm fire, the ambitious and rich introduction that a writer of her caliber deserves." - Emma Straub

"Edan Lepucki's first novel comes steeped in Southern California literary tradition.... One thinks of Steve Erickson or Cynthia Kadohata, or Carolyn See, whose 1987 novel Golden Days ends with the nuclear holocaust." - David L Ulin