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Get startedHousemates
A Novel
Narrator
Marin Ireland
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Length
9 hours 13 minutes
Language
English
Summary
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Two young housemates embark on a road trip to discover themselves in this “exceptional, keenly observed meditation on art and love” (People) in a fractured America, by the award-winning author of The Third Rainbow Girl
“Tender, introspective, and at times delightfully funny, this is the perfect book to bring on a road trip.”—Time (LGBTQ+ Books to Read for Pride)
A Most Anticipated Book of 2024: Los Angeles Times, Harper’s Bazaar, Lit Hub, Debutiful, LGBTQ Reads, The Rumpus, Lilith, Hey Alma, Them, Kirkus Reviews
What does it feel like, standing in the moments that will mark your life?
When Bernie replies to Leah’s ad for a new housemate in Philadelphia, the two begin an intense and defiantly uncategorizable friendship based on a mutual belief in their art, and one another. Both aspire to capture the world around them: Leah through her writing; Bernie through her photography.
After Bernie’s former photography professor, the renowned yet tarnished Daniel Dunn, dies and leaves her a complicated inheritance, Leah volunteers to accompany Bernie to his home in rural Pennsylvania, turning the jaunt into a road trip with an ambitious mission: to document America through words and photographs.
What ensues is a journey into the heart of the nation, bringing the housemates into conversation with people from all walks of life—“the absurd dreamers and failures of this wide, wide country”—as they try to make sense of the times they are living in. Along the way, Leah and Bernie discover what it means to chase their own ideas and dreams, and to embrace what they are capable of both romantically and artistically.
Warm and insightful, Housemates is a story of youth and freedom—a glorious celebration of queer life, and how art and love might save us all.
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Reviews
“Tender, introspective, and at times delightfully funny, this is the perfect book to bring on a road trip.”—Time, ‘15 LGBTQ+ Books to Read for Pride’“[An] exceptional, keenly observed meditation on art and love.”—People
“A contemporary, queerer take on the American dream.”—Marie Claire
“Tender, nuanced, and hilarious.”—Oprah Daily
“[A] wise and beautiful and gorgeously gay exploration of America, art, and the rugged vast country that is love itself.”—Sarah Thankam Mathews, author of All This Could Be Different
“A beautiful novel about art, community, and connection.”—Rachel Khong, New York Times bestselling author of Real Americans
“Emotionally rich and quietly thought-provoking, this is simply a stunning debut.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Sumptuous . . . Once Eisenberg revs the engine, she reaches luminous heights. Readers will count themselves lucky to go along for the ride.”—Publishers Weekly
“A debut novel that’s part The Price of Salt and part Just Kids, in which two friends journey across America in pursuit of art and love.”—Electric Literature
“Eisenberg’s fiction debut feels like a swim in a heated pool after a long journey.”—Los Angeles Times, “10 Books to Add to Your Reading List in May”
“A genuine book about art, love, friendship, chosen family, and America in this moment.”—Harper’s Bazaar, “Best Beach Reads of 2024”
“Gorgeous . . . A novel as full as life itself, about art-making and love and friendship and making a way in the world, complicated, funny, questioning, moral.”—Elizabeth McCracken, author of The Hero of This Book
“The brilliant, queer, abundant, art-drunk, soulful, sexy American road-trip novel we’ve needed for so long.”—Stacey D’Erasmo, author of The Complicities
“A perfect novel about making art, making a life, and how to do those things at the same time, with other people.”—Hilary Leichter, “A Year in Reading” at The Millions
“Ripe and undeniably rich . . . Emma Copley Eisenberg is a brilliant writer, and Housemates is superb.” —Kristen Arnett, New York Times bestselling author of Mostly Dead Things
“Warm and inviting . . . Eisenberg captures the complexity of both people and places with precision and generosity.”—Sara Nović, New York Times bestselling author of True Biz
“A novel of young queer artists making love, poems, photographs and haunted houses.”—Sarah Schulman, author of Let the Record Show
“Radiant and invigoratingly truthful, Housemates invites us to think about the community and country that are possible when we love.”—Megha Majumdar, New York Times bestselling author of A Burning Expand reviews