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‘LOVED it. Tightly-plotted elegance, 50s glamour and suspense. Put it on your lists’ Jessie Burton
‘Excellent. Riveting to the last page’ The Times

“You know, I’ve been hearing some stories about you,” Greer says.
“What do you mean?”
“That you’re a bit of a liar.”

It is 1951 and Lois Saunders arrives at the Golden Yarrow divorce ranch in Nevada, fleeing her suffocating marriage. Here women from different backgrounds live together for the six weeks it will take to earn their freedom, spending their days riding horses and their nights flirting with cowboys. It’s as wild and fun as Lois’s former home was prim and stifling, but it isn’t until Greer Lang arrives that her world truly cracks open . . .

Gorgeous, beguiling, and outspoken, Greer is unlike anyone Lois has ever met – and she sees something in Lois that no one else ever has. Soon, under her influence, Lois begins to push against the limits that have always restrained her.

But how much can Lois really trust her new friend? And how far will she go to forge her independence, on her own terms?

‘Evocative, beautifully drawn’ Observer

‘Simmering with tension’ Jennie Godfrey

‘Excellent, deeply compelling’ Lauren Groff

‘Tense, dark, and richly layered’ Katy Hays

‘Fans of Lessons In Chemistry will adore it’ Red

‘I straight up loved it’ Elizabeth Macneal

Publisher Review

The Divorcees is gorgeously crafted, perfectly balanced, and full of complex, moving and vividly wrought characters. The sunshot pool at the Golden Yarrow, the searing desert heat, the dark glamor of the casinos will stay with me for a long time. Rowan Beaird writes with such ease and confidence that it’s hard to believe this novel is her first. An excellent, deeply compelling read — Lauren Groff, New York Times bestselling author of Matrix and Fates and Furies A delicious literary page-turner from a fierce new voice — Rebecca Makkai, New York Times bestselling author of I Have Some Questions for You and The Great Believers A stunning debut, Rowan Beaird’s The Divorcees is a glittering desert mirage behind which lurks a shocking web of secrets . . . Tense, dark, and richly layered, lovers of Patricia Highsmith will devour this compulsively readable, standout novel — Katy Hays, New York Times bestselling author of The Cloisters The Divorcees, a sultry fever dream of a novel set on a Reno divorce ranch in the 1950s, should be read by a pool on a blisteringly hot day, preferably with a drink in hand. Its lush, perfectly wrought prose-and the secrets and deceptions at the center of the seductive plot-will unsettle you and keep you turning the pages. This book shimmers and startles on every page — Whitney Scharer, author of The Age of Light The women of The Divorcees captivated me: drenched in desert light, searching for themselves in every possible mirror. Their relationships to one another, gorgeously rendered, have an intensity fueled by self-discovery-these are connections full of deep understanding, shocking deception, devastating betrayal, and real love. Beaird is a wondrous new talent who has given us an unforgettable, lushly assured novel — Clare Beams, author of The Illness Lesson