The Man of My Dreams

By Curtis Sittenfeld, the author of American Wife and Rodham, a sharp and witty novel about a young woman’s romantic fantasies colliding with the realities of adult life. Hannah is a confused fourteen-year-old. In the magazines she reads, celebrities plan elaborate weddings; in Hannah’s own life, her parents’ marriage is crumbling.

Over the next decade and a half, love throws her some complicated questions. At what point can you no longer blame your adult failures on your messed up childhood? Is settling for someone who’s not your soulmate an act of maturity or an admission of defeat? And if you move to another state for a guy who might not love you back, are you being plucky – or just pathetic?

By Curtis Sittenfeld, the author of American Wife and Rodham, a sharp and witty novel about a young woman's romantic fantasies colliding with the realities of adult life. Hannah is a confused fourteen-year-old. In the magazines she reads, celebrities plan elaborate weddings; in Hannah's own life, her parents' marriage is crumbling. Over the next decade and a half, love throws her some complicated questions. At what point can you no longer blame your adult failures on your messed up childhood? Is settling for someone who's not your soulmate an act of maturity or an admission of defeat? And if you move to another state for a guy who might not love you back, are you being plucky - or just pathetic?