NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Two young housemates embark on a road trip to discover themselves in this “exceptional, keenly observed meditation on art and love” (People) in a fractured America, by the award-winning author of The Third Rainbow Girl
“Tender, introspective, and at times delightfully funny, this is the perfect book to bring on a road trip.”—Time (LGBTQ+ Books to Read for Pride)
A Most Anticipated Book of 2024: Los Angeles Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Lit Hub, Debutiful, LGBTQ Reads, The Rumpus, Lilith, Hey Alma, Them, Kirkus Reviews
What does it feel like, standing in the moments that will mark your life?
When Bernie replies to Leah’s ad for a new housemate in Philadelphia, the two begin an intense and defiantly uncategorizable friendship based on a mutual belief in their art, and one another. Both aspire to capture the world around them: Leah through her writing; Bernie through her photography.
After Bernie’s former photography professor, the renowned yet tarnished Daniel Dunn, dies and leaves her a complicated inheritance, Leah volunteers to accompany Bernie to his home in rural Pennsylvania, turning the jaunt into a road trip with an ambitious mission: to document America through words and photographs.
What ensues is a journey into the heart of the nation, bringing the housemates into conversation with people from all walks of life—“the absurd dreamers and failures of this wide, wide country”—as they try to make sense of the times they are living in. Along the way, Leah and Bernie discover what it means to chase their own ideas and dreams, and to embrace what they are capable of both romantically and artistically.
Warm and insightful, Housemates is a story of youth and freedom—a glorious celebration of queer life, and how art and love might save us all.
Genre: Literary Fiction
“Tender, introspective, and at times delightfully funny, this is the perfect book to bring on a road trip.”—Time (LGBTQ+ Books to Read for Pride)
A Most Anticipated Book of 2024: Los Angeles Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Lit Hub, Debutiful, LGBTQ Reads, The Rumpus, Lilith, Hey Alma, Them, Kirkus Reviews
What does it feel like, standing in the moments that will mark your life?
When Bernie replies to Leah’s ad for a new housemate in Philadelphia, the two begin an intense and defiantly uncategorizable friendship based on a mutual belief in their art, and one another. Both aspire to capture the world around them: Leah through her writing; Bernie through her photography.
After Bernie’s former photography professor, the renowned yet tarnished Daniel Dunn, dies and leaves her a complicated inheritance, Leah volunteers to accompany Bernie to his home in rural Pennsylvania, turning the jaunt into a road trip with an ambitious mission: to document America through words and photographs.
What ensues is a journey into the heart of the nation, bringing the housemates into conversation with people from all walks of life—“the absurd dreamers and failures of this wide, wide country”—as they try to make sense of the times they are living in. Along the way, Leah and Bernie discover what it means to chase their own ideas and dreams, and to embrace what they are capable of both romantically and artistically.
Warm and insightful, Housemates is a story of youth and freedom—a glorious celebration of queer life, and how art and love might save us all.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"Ripe and undeniably rich . . . Emma Copley Eisenberg is a brilliant writer, and Housemates is superb." - Kristen Arnett
"The brilliant, queer, abundant, art-drunk, soulful, sexy American road-trip novel we've needed for so long." - Stacey D'Erasmo
"A beautiful novel about art, community, and connection." - Rachel Khong
"A perfect novel about making art, making a life, and how to do those things at the same time, with other people." - Hilary Leichter
"Gorgeous . . . A novel as full as life itself, about art-making and love and friendship and making a way in the world, complicated, funny, questioning, moral." - Elizabeth McCracken
"Radiant and invigoratingly truthful, Housemates invites us to think about the community and country that are possible when we love." - Megha Majumdar
"[A] wise and beautiful and gorgeously gay exploration of America, art, and the rugged vast country that is love itself." - Sarah Thankam Mathews
"Warm and inviting . . . Eisenberg captures the complexity of both people and places with precision and generosity." - Sara Nović
"A novel of young queer artists making love, poems, photographs and haunted houses." - Sarah Schulman
"The brilliant, queer, abundant, art-drunk, soulful, sexy American road-trip novel we've needed for so long." - Stacey D'Erasmo
"A beautiful novel about art, community, and connection." - Rachel Khong
"A perfect novel about making art, making a life, and how to do those things at the same time, with other people." - Hilary Leichter
"Gorgeous . . . A novel as full as life itself, about art-making and love and friendship and making a way in the world, complicated, funny, questioning, moral." - Elizabeth McCracken
"Radiant and invigoratingly truthful, Housemates invites us to think about the community and country that are possible when we love." - Megha Majumdar
"[A] wise and beautiful and gorgeously gay exploration of America, art, and the rugged vast country that is love itself." - Sarah Thankam Mathews
"Warm and inviting . . . Eisenberg captures the complexity of both people and places with precision and generosity." - Sara Nović
"A novel of young queer artists making love, poems, photographs and haunted houses." - Sarah Schulman
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Used availability for Emma Copley Eisenberg's Housemates