A love letter to classic literature
and an illuminating look at newfound adulthood.
Ava Gallanter is the librarian in residence at the Lazarus Club, an ancient, dwindling Manhattan arts club full of eccentric geriatric residents stuck in a long-gone era. Twenty-five-year-old Ava, however, feels right at home. She leads a quiet life, surrounded by her beloved books and sequestered away from her peers. When Ava’s enigmatic friend Stephanie returns after an unplanned year abroad, the intoxicating opportunist vows to rescue Ava from a life of obscurity. Stephanie, on the hunt for fame and fortune, promises to make Ava’s dream of becoming a writer come true, and together they start a Victorian-inspired literary salon at the Lazarus Club. However, Ava’s romanticized idea of the salon quickly erodes as Stephanie’s ambitions take the women in an unexpected—and precarious—direction.
In this humorous yet keenly observant coming-of-age story, Cohen brings us into a boisterous literary world bathed in hubris and ambition. With eloquent prose and affecting storytelling, The Little Clan is both a wickedly fun yet sharply insightful look at friendship, feminism and finding yourself in your twenties.
“Cohen’s charming debut sparkles with humor, heart, and an irresistibly irreverent love of books and bibliophiles... vibrant [and] engaging.”
“Debut novelist Cohen has concocted a delightful domestic drama: Enigmatic Ben, irrepressible Stephanie, and lots of quirky characters surround Ava, whose mind is a fascinating place to visit as she learns to bring her love for all things literary into a world of shallow readers. A charming tale sure to delight book lovers
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“Cohen deftly skewers the pretentious (and often superficial) characters who inhabit [a] rarefied circle… This smart, witty first novel will delight readers who enjoy quirky coming-of-age stories with a dash of highbrow humor.”
“A brilliant newcomer whose prose races through the page but then knows exactly when to catch its breath to produce Jamesian inflections of unparalleled beauty. Iris Cohen is not only a talented writer; she is an artist. And the giveaway sign of every artist is to make both aspiring and established writers secretly envious.”
“In The Little Clan, Cohen delightfully draws the intoxicating tribulations of coming-of-age in New York City. Her debut is a heartbreaking, and often hilarious, tale of female friendship.”
“The Little Clan is a delicious read-beautifully written and observed, with a delightful sense of humor and all the giddy absurdity of new adulthood.”
“This debut novel is stunning; every sentence is a tiny masterpiece. The details of Ava’s world are immaculately rendered, and her misadventures are bold, cringe-inducing, and irresistible all at the same time. Reading this book makes me wish I could’ve passed some of my misspent youth at the House of Mirth.”
“It Girls meet Lit Girls in this delectably written tale of two young women determined to lay claim to bookish Manhattan, fire codes, overdrawn bank accounts, and illegal leases be damned.”
“Iris Martin Cohen’s The Little Clan nails 21st-century New York: the antic collision of old and new money, old and new art, old and new pretensions. Funny and sharp-eyed and just as fond as it is satiric.”
“Witty, warm, and (sometimes uncomfortably) honest, The Little Clan is a tender look at life in your twenties, when you’ve got big ambitions and not much else. Iris Martin Cohen conjures a magical, mythical New York populated by bibliophiles and billionaires, where anything seems possible.”
“The Little Clan is a glittering little wonder. By turns gorgeously lyrical, laugh-aloud funny and almost breathtakingly astute, it’s a tongue-in-cheek love letter to old books and youthful imprudence that delights to the very last word.”
“The Little Clan is both a charmer and a creeping heartbreaker. It draws you in with a comedic tale of manners and society in New York, but makes its way to your gut with a searing narrative of modern femininity-a story of grave importance, told exquisitely here. The journey of Ava and Stephanie veers from lightness to darkness, with grace and humor and heart. Iris Martin Cohen has written a treasure.”
“Bookish girls, you have a new heroine in Ava Galante, the charming star of this beyond-charming debut. Equal parts social satire and comedy of manners, The Little Clan had me nodding in recognition and laughing out loud at the New York types and tropes perfectly captured by Iris Martin Cohen, a writer clearly at the start of a brilliant career.”
“Beautifully and intelligently written, The Little Clan explores what it is to try to make art as a woman, what it is to love, and what it is to want. It’s about the seductions of reading and of other people and about what is left when life turns out other than we thought.”
“Like an Edith Wharton in the East Village, Iris Cohen mines the ambitions and desires of young women seeking to find a place in elite social circles. The Little Clan is a charming, captivating read, but it’s also a witty, fiercely intelligent look at the the ways women are lost and saved by dangerous friendships and literary obsessions.”
“At last, an heir to Laurie Colwin! Cohen’s debut charts the vicissitudes of her young heroine Ava Gallanter’s literary life in New York with warmth, humor, and grace.”
“For anyone who’s ever favored tea over coffee as more authentically literary; or had a crush on a fictional character and/or a dead author; or wished that silk stockings and garters would make a comeback despite their massive inconvenience; or written with a quill pen because dammit, that’s how Keats did it-The Little Clan is at long last here for you, celebrating your predilections with lush exuberance and a gorgeously sly sense of humor.”