The Drifter: A Novel

by Christine Lennon

Overview

Megan Abbott meets M.O. Walsh in Christine Lennon's compelling debut novel about a group of friends on the cusp of graduating from college when their lives are irrevocably changed by a brutal act of violence.

Present Day…

For two decades, Elizabeth has tried to escape the ghosts of her past…tried to erase the painful memories…tried to keep out the terrifying nightmares. But twenty years after graduating from the University of Florida, her carefully curated life begins to unravel, forcing her to confront the past she’s tried so hard to forget.

1990s, Gainesville, Florida…

Elizabeth and her two closest friends, Caroline and Ginny, are having the time of their lives in college—binge watching Oprah, flirting for freebies from Taco Bell, and breaking hearts along the way. But without warning, their world is suddenly shattered when a series of horrific acts of violence ravage the campus, changing their lives forever.

Sweeping readers from the exclusive corners of sorority life in the South to the frontlines of the drug-fueled, slacker culture in Manhattan in the ‘90s and early ‘00s, when Elizabeth is forced to acknowledge her role in the death of a friend in order to mend a broken friendship and save her own life, The Drifter is an unforgettable story about the complexities of friendships and the secrets that can ultimately destroy us.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062457578
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/14/2017
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.80(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

CHRISTINE LENNON is a Los Angeles based writer. Before she moved to the West Coast and started her freelance career, she was an editor at W, Vogue, and Harper’s Bazaar. Since then, she has written for publications including, T, the New York Times Style Magazine; the Wall Street Journal; Town & Country; W; Vogue; Harper’s Bazaar; Martha Stewart Living; Sunset; C California Style; Marie Claire; Self; Net-a-Porter’s Porter and The Edit online magazine—among others. Christine lives in California with her husband, Andrew Reich, and their twins. The Drifter is her first book.

Editorial Reviews

11/21/2016
The prologue of Lennon’s deeply felt but flawed debut, more a coming-of-age novel than a thriller, centers on Betsy Young, who 20 years earlier “left her friend alone to die,” the victim of a serial killer. In 2010, Betsy is a seemingly successful New Yorker with a glossy job at an auction house; a supportive husband, Gavin; and a feisty four-year-old daughter she’s terrified to let out of her sight. The reason for this fear emerges exceedingly gradually as the narrative jumps back to Gainesville, Fla., in 1990 and a very different Betsy, then a rebellious but thoughtful University of Florida senior trying to navigate her relationships with her best friend, Ginny; demanding frenemy Caroline; and the simpatico guy who has caught her eye, Gavin. Though Lennon hooks readers early with her dramatic premise, the choice to focus for most of the book on the minutiae of Betsy’s life over a several-day stretch and a contrived denouement keep this from becoming the compelling read it might have been. Agent: Brettne Bloom, Book Group. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

The Drifer is a gripping thriller deepened by an examination of the intense and life-altering friendships young women form at the beginning of adulthood that rings with poignant truth. I could not put it down.” — Heather Young, author of The Lost Girls

“Part campus novel, part coming-of-age story, The Drifter by Christine Lennon is a compelling and thoughtful debut about how the past can press against the present, and haunt it… Its heroine’s ongoing struggles to fit in and find herself will compel you to turn the page.” — Edan Lepucki, bestselling author of California Edan Lepucki, bestselling author of California

From the Publisher

The Drifer is a gripping thriller deepened by an examination of the intense and life-altering friendships young women form at the beginning of adulthood that rings with poignant truth. I could not put it down.

Heather Young

Part campus novel, part coming-of-age story, The Drifter by Christine Lennon is a compelling and thoughtful debut about how the past can press against the present, and haunt it… Its heroine’s ongoing struggles to fit in and find herself will compel you to turn the page.

Edan Lepucki