Prep [Paperback]

‘Sittenfeld’s humour and sharp observation deliver a coming-of-age
novel you can relate to.’

'it is her skittish everygirl act that lends the book its
infectious charm.'

'a tour de force of bitter adolescence, class envy, ...solid
friendship and shivery first sex'

highly recommended by trendy American literati..writing is fresh and vivid and the subject is uiversal...extremely enjoyable.. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Orange Prize shortlisted first novel by the phenomenal word-of-mouth bestselling author of American Wife, now republished in Black Swan --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

a straightforward, serious, funny book...i liked the book so much. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

She is a narrator exquisitely attuned to nuance..Prep, in short, is not a preparatory work but a highly accomplished novel --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Class is a British problem. Right?

Curtis Sittenfeld's sparkling debut is set in an American boarding school, a hotbed of privilege, ambition and neurosis, every bit as snobbish and competitive as anything dreamed up on this side of the Atlantic. Lee Fiora is an intelligent, observant fourteen-year-old when her father drops her off at the prestigious Ault School in Massachusetts; she leaves behind her affectionate family in South Bend, Indiana, her head filled with images from the school's glossy brochure, in which boys in sweaters chat in front of old brick buildings, girls hold lacrosse sticks on pristine athletics fields, and everyone sings hymns in chapel. As Lee soon learns, Ault is quite unlike anything she has previously experienced, a self-enclosed world populated by jaded teenagers whose expectations, values and social rituals are utterly unfamiliar to her. At first an observer of, then a participant in the hyper-vigilant, intricately demarcated life of the school, Lee eventually finds her own place in the pecking order - until a single act of spontaneous folly shatters her carefully honed identity. 'Smart, witty and sensitive . . . Any girl who's ever felt like an outsider will be drawn to troubled Lee, a scholarship teen at a posh boarding school’ InStyle 'An addictive portrait of adolescence - The OC meets Donna Tartt’s The Secret History with flashes of Clueless’ Observer ‘Sittenfeld writes with confidence, her dialogue rings true . . . and her observations range from witty to surprisingly funny, sometimes absurd’ Herald

Lee Fiora is a shy fourteen-year-old when she leaves small-town Indiana for Ault School in Massachusetts. Her head is filled with images from the school brochure of handsome boys in sweaters leaning against old brick buildings, girls running with lacrosse sticks across pristine athletics fields, everyone singing hymns in chapel. But as she soon learns, Ault is a minefield of unstated rules and incomprehensible social rituals, and Lee must work hard to find - and maintain - her place in the pecking order. 'The OC mets Donna Tartt's The Secret History with flashes of Clueless . . . Prep doesn't come sugar-coated: it is a dark and obsessive examination of the cruelty of the coolness hierarchy . . . Sittenfeld's strength is in making this experience feel universal . . . Everyone will wince with recognition at the horror of being a teenager. It's great to relive it all, now that it is happening to someone else' Observer 'Straightforward, serious, funny . . . There is so much that is right about this book. Sittenfeld captures the hothouse atmosphere of boarding-school, the way you see even people you don't like in their underwear . . . Mostly, however, it's Lee's voice that makes all this worthwhile' London Review of Books 'You don't have to have attended an elite Massachusetts boarding school to find yourself reliving your adolescence in Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep . . . Even the Cross Sugarmans (major crush) and Aspeth Montgomerys (long legs, super popular) of this world will cringe with recognition at the book's fine-knit accuracy and detail' Vogue 'Sweet Valley High as written by George Eliot. Sittenfeld is a pin-sharp observer, and in Prep she needles away at class, race and character . . . Prep is unflinching and never twee, and will appeal to any age . . . A highly accomplished novel' Independent on Sunday 'Curtis Sittenfeld shares with Salinger a knack of capturing, in effortless prose, a teenage mindset . . . It feels important . . . Most vitally of all, it feels like adolescence' The Times

Curtis Sittenfeld was born in 1975. She lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Prep is her first novel; her second novel, The Man of My Dreams, will be published by Picador in 2007.