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Noley Reid

Pretend We Are Lovely

​from Tin House Books
A sharp and darkly funny novel of
​family secrets, hunger, and forgiveness

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​“In magnetic prose,
Reid offers up a scrumptious novel
about the things we use
to save our fractured relationships.”
--O, The Oprah Magazine
         Consuming and big-hearted, Noley Reid’s Pretend We Are Lovely details a summer in the life of the Sobel family in 1980s Blacksburg, Virginia, seven years after the tragic and suspicious death of a son and sibling.
         Francie Sobel dresses in tennis skirts and ankle socks and weighs her allotted grams of carrots and iceberg lettuce. Semi-estranged husband Tate prefers a packed fridge and secret doughnuts. Daughters Enid, ten, and Vivvy, thirteen, are subtler versions of their parents, measuring their summer vacation by meals eaten or skipped. But at summer’s end, secrets both old and new come to the surface and Francie disappears, leaving the family teetering on the brink.?
         Without their mother’s regimental love, and witnessing their father flounder in his new position of authority, the girls must navigate their way through middle school, find comfort in each other, and learn the difference between food and nourishment.

Order a copy for yourself or a special friend
  • at your own local bookstore,
  • from my fantastic local bookstore Your Brother's Bookstore in Evansville, Indiana,
  • from large-scale indie Bookshop.org here, 
  • or if you'd like me to sign a copy to you or anyone you specify, order here on my site. 
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Pretend We Are Lovely, Tin House Books

Noley Reid  |  Novelist & Short Storyist

Keep up with me. 
  • Home Biography
  • News, Reviews, & New Writing
  • Books
    • Origami Dogs
    • Pretend We Are Lovely
    • So There!
    • In the Breeze of Passing Things
    • If You Must Know
    • Girls
  • Readings & Events
  • Published Stories & Essays
  • Mailing List
  • Contact
  • Bookstore