American Fantasy: A Novel

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

From New York Times bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow, an irresistible story about what happens when your teenage fantasy comes true after you’re already an adult.

“American Fantasy has everything we need right now: '90s nostalgia, humor, and it is a great escape.” —Jenna Bush Hager on NBC Today Show

“Vividly conjured and frequently hilarious." —Wall Street Journal

"I can hardly remember the last time I read anything that brought me such pure joy.” —Ann Patchett

“Delicious.” —Taylor Jenkins Reid

“Tenderhearted.”—New York Times

“Part Jane Austen and part VH1. Funny and wise and perfectly done.” —Lena Dunham

When the American Fantasy cruise ship sets sail for a four-day themed voyage, aboard are all five members of a famous, nineties-era boy band and three thousand screaming women who have worshipped them since childhood.

Feeling slightly out of place amid this crowd is Annie, here on a lark to appease her sister. Yet when the lights come up and the idols of her youth begin to sing, something is unlocked. Call it memory. Call it nostalgia. Call it the chemical reaction of hormones, hope, and sexual reawakening. Between the slushy alcoholic drinks, the familiar music, and the throngs of middle-aged women acting like lovesick teenagers, Annie finally reconnects to a long-submerged part of herself. By the time she meets one of the band members—not just a celebrity but someone in need of a friend—she has accessed a new sense of possibility.

In a smart and incisive book packed with laugh-out-loud reflections on fame, aging, and marriage, Emma Straub delivers a richly textured story that shows us real passion is never truly lost, that what we love makes us who we are, and that deep meaning can sometimes be found in a sea of screaming fans.