City of Girls: A Novel

Elizabeth Gilbert

✦ Delights (3) · join to peek

Told as a memoir-style letter from an elderly Vivian Morris, this historical novel follows her move to 1940s New York City after being expelled from Vassar, where she falls in with her aunt's eccentric theater troupe and a circle of glamorous showgirls. Across decades she experiences sexual awakening, scandal, war, and unconventional friendships before arriving at her own hard-won understanding of love and self-acceptance. It's less a traditional romance than a sweeping, candid coming-of-age story about a woman refusing to be ashamed of who she is.