Like Happiness by Ursula Villarreal-Moura

Like Happiness by Ursula Villarreal-Moura

A 'deeply felt and achingly intimate' (Annie Lord) debut novel about the complexities of gender, power, race and fame for readers of Sheena Patel's I'm A Fan and Madeleine Grey's Green Dot

I made up my mind to meet you. Your book had cast a spell on me the previous night. What better way to stay spellbound than to orbit the magician?

You write your favourite author a fan letter and he writes back. An intoxicating, undefinable, all consuming relationship ensues. Ten years later, a slew of allegations emerge that will shatter the story you have told yourself, leaving behind a blank page for something new...

Like Happiness is a headfirst dive into a young woman's destructive obsession with a legendary writer. Razor-sharp, delectably witty, and told with blistering emotional honesty, this electric debut novel reckons with the stories we choose to believe, about the past, our relationships and above all about ourselves.

'An epic unravelling of every love story, reclaimed as something sharp, seething, unsettling, and true' T KIRA MADDEN

'A stunning swirl of a coming-of-age novel about power, manipulation, and complicity' MEGAN GIDDINGS

'Accomplishes a profound emotional electrocution that will leave you floating lighter for days' XOCHITL GONZALEZ

'A moving portrait of the vulnerabilities of young womanhood' TODAY.COM

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NetGalley reviewers love Like Happiness:

'Beautifully written and unputdownable... I would read this over and over again'

'I simply love this book'

'My jaw was on the floor... I'd recommend it for fans of My Dark Vanessa'

'Like Happiness is a deft and touching coming of age story that resists easy answers to very thorny questions-about sexual consent and power, about fame and persona, about making and loving art' - Rumaan Alam, bestselling author of Leave the World Behind

'An epic unraveling of every love story trope, reclaimed as something sharp, seething, unsettling, and true. Yes, this has page flipping plot momentum, but it's also a whip smart critique of race in America, art making in the age of neoliberal 'feminism,' and the crushing humor of trying to exist as a quiet person with big wants' - T Kira Madden, author of Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls

'Like Happiness is a stunning swirl of a coming of age novel about power, manipulation, and complicity. In Tatum, Ursula Villarreal-Moura has created an eminently relatable character. Readers will connect to her love of books, her complicated relationships, and the different ways she grapples with understanding herself--in relation to class, sexuality, race, and family ties. This is the start of a brilliant career.' - Megan Giddings, author of The Women Could Fly and Lakewood

'Expertly written with striking intimacy and heartbreaking clarity, Like Happiness accomplishes a profound emotional electrocution that will leave you floating lighter for days' - Xochitl Gonzalez, author of Olga Dies Dreaming

URSULA VILLARREAL-MOURA is the author of Math for the Self-Crippling, selected by Zinzi Clemmons as the Gold Line Press Fiction Contest Winner. A graduate of Middlebury College, she received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and was a VONA/Voices fellow. Her writing has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, a Pushcart Prize, and longlisted for Best American Short Stories in 2015.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781911590927
ISBN 10	1911590928
Title	Like Happiness
Author	Ursula Villarreal-Moura
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Pushkin Press
Year published	2024-04-04
Number of pages	304
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.