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Ghost Lover

Stories

LIST PRICE $18.99

About The Book

“Raw and searching...Taddeo returns with more ruthless explorations of the feminine mystique.” —Entertainment Weekly, “The Best New Books of the Month” * “Provocative.” —Los Angeles Times

From the #1 New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of Three Women and “our most eloquent and faithful chronicler of human desire” (Esquire), comes an electrifying collection of nine fearless and ferocious short stories.

Behind anonymous screens, an army of cool and beautiful girls manage the dating service Ghost Lover, a forwarding system for text messages that promises to spare you the anguish of trying to stay composed while communicating with your crush. At a star-studded political fundraiser in a Los Angeles mansion, a trio of women compete to win the heart of the slick guest of honor. In a tense hospital waiting room, an inseparable pair of hard-partying friends crash into life’s responsibilities, but the magic of their glory days comes alive again at the moment they least expect it.

In these nine riveting stories—which include two Pushcart Prize winners and a finalist for the National Magazine Award—Lisa Taddeo brings to life the fever of obsession, the blindness of love, and the mania of grief. Featuring Taddeo’s arresting prose that continues to thrill her legions of fans, Ghost Lover dares you to look away.

About The Author

J. Waite

Lisa Taddeo is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Three Women, which she is adapting as a dramatic series at Showtime, and the novel Animal. She has contributed to The New York TimesNew York magazine, EsquireElleGlamour, and many other publications. Her nonfiction has been included in the Best American Sports Writing and Best American Political Writing anthologies, and her short stories have won two Pushcart Prizes. She lives with her husband and daughter in New England. 

Product Details

  • Publisher: Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster (June 13, 2023)
  • Length: 240 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781982122195

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Raves and Reviews

“Lisa Taddeo’s work is addictive. Once you start reading, you (legally) cannot stop. You’ll find yourself flipping through the crisp pages of her books late into the night, devouring the inner psyches of her haunting, irresistible female leads. . . .Taddeo’s prose speaks to the seedy core of us, capturing the experience of being a woman in a world that hates women, but simultaneously loves to fuck them, both literally and in the abstract.”
Esquire

Ghost Lover feels built to provoke—and it’s provocative. It pricks and prods you with its unrelenting focus on the many ways inhabiting a certain type of female body can ruin a life. . . . You might not know anyone like these women, but chances are that every woman you know holds at least a little bit of these women inside of them.”
Los Angeles Times

“In Ghost Lover, Lisa Taddeo’s new collection of short stories, this world [of female desire] is illuminated, unpacked, and ultimately, understood. Across nine stories, Taddeo’s prose cuts like a knife—sharp, visceral, and dripping with ugly truths. She understands the grueling nature of the female psyche with an almost painful precision.”
Nylon

“Raw and searching . . . Lisa Taddeo returns with more ruthless explorations of the feminine mystique in Ghost Lover.”
Entertainment Weekly, “The Best New Books of June 2022”

“Readers of Taddeo’s nonfiction debut, Three Women (2019), and first novel, Animal (2021), will feel at home with the cast of women who haunt her first short-story collection: powerful, incisive, deep-feeling people who chase sex and love, often as they run from trauma and other hurts. . . . In Taddeo’s tantalizing stories . . . death seeps in through the cracks, but so does lightness, humor, and a kind of freedom.”
Booklist

“I’ll read anything Lisa Taddeo ever writes. . . . The tales in Ghost Lover don’t disappoint. . . . These nine tales give us just the right dose of Lisa’s brilliant voice.”
Zibby Owens, Good Morning America, “15 New Books to Add to Your Reading List for June"

“The nine stories in this collection, two of which have won Pushcarts, are dark and spooky explorations of anonymity, connection, shame, and passion. Reading it is an out-of-body experience.”
LitHub

“Ragingly funny with pointed descriptions and keen, sometimes devastating, observations about women and love and sex.”
Toronto Star

“Lisa Taddeo, a Pushcart Prize winner and the No. 1 New York Times best-selling author of Three Women, is back with an engrossing collection of short stories. . . . In Ghost Lover, Taddeo’s talent and knack for storytelling will certainly have readers itching for more than nine stories.”
—Shondaland

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