A Glamour Best Book of 2020• Winner of an Audiofile Earphones Award • An Entertainment Weekly 30 Hottest Books of the Summer • A Refinery29 25 Books You’ll Want To Read This Summer Selection • A Chicago Review of Books 10 Must-Read Books of the Month • A LitHub Most Anticipated Book of the Year • A The Millions Most Anticipated Book of the Year • A Shondaland 15 Hot Books for Summer
One of today’s most provocative literary writers—the author of the critically-acclaimed Sunshine State and the Los Angeles Times First Fiction Award finalist Binary Star—captures the confused state of modern romance and the egos that inflate it in a dark comedy about a woman's search for acceptance, identity, and financial security in the rise of Trump.
Nina is a struggling writer, a college drop-out, a liar, and a cheater. More than anything she wants love. She deserves it.
From the burned-out suburbs of Florida to the anonymous squalor of New York City, she eats through an incestuous cast of characters in search of it: her mother, a narcissistic lesbian living in a nudist polycule; Odessa, a single mom with even worse taste in men than Nina; Seth, an artist whose latest show is comprised of three Tupperware containers full of trash; Brian, whose roller-coaster affair with Nina is the most stable “relationship” in his life; and Aaron, an aspiring filmmaker living at home with his parents, with whom Nina begins to write her magnum opus.
Nina’s quest for fulfillment is at once darkly comedic, acerbically acute, and painfully human—a scathing critique of contemporary society, and a tender examination of our anguished yearning for connection in an era defined by detachment.
Genre: Literary Fiction
One of today’s most provocative literary writers—the author of the critically-acclaimed Sunshine State and the Los Angeles Times First Fiction Award finalist Binary Star—captures the confused state of modern romance and the egos that inflate it in a dark comedy about a woman's search for acceptance, identity, and financial security in the rise of Trump.
Nina is a struggling writer, a college drop-out, a liar, and a cheater. More than anything she wants love. She deserves it.
From the burned-out suburbs of Florida to the anonymous squalor of New York City, she eats through an incestuous cast of characters in search of it: her mother, a narcissistic lesbian living in a nudist polycule; Odessa, a single mom with even worse taste in men than Nina; Seth, an artist whose latest show is comprised of three Tupperware containers full of trash; Brian, whose roller-coaster affair with Nina is the most stable “relationship” in his life; and Aaron, an aspiring filmmaker living at home with his parents, with whom Nina begins to write her magnum opus.
Nina’s quest for fulfillment is at once darkly comedic, acerbically acute, and painfully human—a scathing critique of contemporary society, and a tender examination of our anguished yearning for connection in an era defined by detachment.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"True Love is a look at what happens when we lie to each other, but also what happens when we lie to ourselves. Sarah Gerard has written a book both funny and dark, a fantastically mesmerizing read. Its settings are dreamy and unsettling. The book showcases beauty and ugliness in equal measure, highlighting both pain and pleasure. It is bold and wildly imaginative, an overall deeply human novel. Gerard is a fiercely talented writer and TRUE LOVE is a real page turner." - Kristen Arnett
"TRUE LOVE is a brash, sexy, and addictive novel about bad decisions. Gerard’s uncompromising honesty and graceful, precise sentences make me jealous. I didn’t want the book to end." - Juliet Escoria
"Sharp as a knife and wickedly insightful, TRUE LOVE is a ferocious portrait of love, hate, and artistic self-definition in the 21st century. Life, with all its bruises, wounds, and unsightly rashes, becomes real and touchable in Sarah Gerard's masterful hands." - Alexandra Kleeman
"An unapologetic drama about a woman's insistence on living at the apex of desire and self-destruction—what a rush!" - Catherine Lacey
"In the aching pages of TRUE LOVE, Gerard holds nothing back. What’s at stake in this frank, ferocious novel is the brutal, ever-elusive salvation of oneself. A smart, tender, startling work of brilliance." - Idra Novey
"TRUE LOVE hurts so good. A sharply-observed portrait of a knockdown world of low-wage work, lean belief, and artistic striving, Sarah Gerard's novel captures with acuity and intelligence the brutal and baffling contortions we will twist ourselves into to find, in hairline crevices, connection—even when it is compromised, explosive as it peters out, absurd and painful and frightening." - Tracy O'Neill
"Sarah Gerard's TRUE LOVE is a devastating portrait of loneliness and self-destruction. It's both a compassionate portrait of an addict and an incisive commentary on how our capitalist, individualist culture rips us away from ourselves. Nina's compulsions and anger, her selfishness and yearning, her wisdom and naïveté—Gerard handles it all with deft poeticism and mastery of scene-building. This novel is a pleasure to read even as it gouges you and turns you inside out." - SJ Sindu
"TRUE LOVE is a brash, sexy, and addictive novel about bad decisions. Gerard’s uncompromising honesty and graceful, precise sentences make me jealous. I didn’t want the book to end." - Juliet Escoria
"Sharp as a knife and wickedly insightful, TRUE LOVE is a ferocious portrait of love, hate, and artistic self-definition in the 21st century. Life, with all its bruises, wounds, and unsightly rashes, becomes real and touchable in Sarah Gerard's masterful hands." - Alexandra Kleeman
"An unapologetic drama about a woman's insistence on living at the apex of desire and self-destruction—what a rush!" - Catherine Lacey
"In the aching pages of TRUE LOVE, Gerard holds nothing back. What’s at stake in this frank, ferocious novel is the brutal, ever-elusive salvation of oneself. A smart, tender, startling work of brilliance." - Idra Novey
"TRUE LOVE hurts so good. A sharply-observed portrait of a knockdown world of low-wage work, lean belief, and artistic striving, Sarah Gerard's novel captures with acuity and intelligence the brutal and baffling contortions we will twist ourselves into to find, in hairline crevices, connection—even when it is compromised, explosive as it peters out, absurd and painful and frightening." - Tracy O'Neill
"Sarah Gerard's TRUE LOVE is a devastating portrait of loneliness and self-destruction. It's both a compassionate portrait of an addict and an incisive commentary on how our capitalist, individualist culture rips us away from ourselves. Nina's compulsions and anger, her selfishness and yearning, her wisdom and naïveté—Gerard handles it all with deft poeticism and mastery of scene-building. This novel is a pleasure to read even as it gouges you and turns you inside out." - SJ Sindu
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