A NOVEL OBSESSION is on sale now!

A Best Book of 2022 by Buzzfeed and New York Post!

A Good Morning America Buzz Pick

A “Best Beach Read of 2022” by Vogue & Harper’s Bazaar

A Most Anticipated Book by The Millions, BuzzFeed, Bustle, Book Riot, The Nerd Daily, Goodreads

Find it in your local bookstore, or order it from the outlet of your choice (Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, etc).

“Caitlin Barasch’s writing overflows with humor, compassion, intrigue, and the chaos of identity. It overflows with life itself.” —Jonathan Safran Foer, New York Times bestselling author of Here I Am and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

“This book is a ride. An unruly study of fixation, performance, and the exquisite agony of anonymity.”—Raven Leilani, New York Times bestselling author of Luster

A wry and bold debut novel, which is at once an irresistible catastrophe waiting to happen and an unflinching exploration of how we narrate the stories of our lives, as an aspiring novelist finds herself stalking—and writing about—her boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend.
 
Twenty-four-year-old bookseller and New Yorker Naomi Ackerman, desperate to write a novel, struggles to find the right story to tell. When, after years of disastrous Tinder dates, she meets Caleb—a perfectly nice guy with a Welsh accent and a unique patience for all of her quirks—she feels she’s finally stumbled onto a time-honored subject: love. But then Caleb’s ex-girlfriend, Rosemary, enters the scene. 
 
When Naomi learns that Rosemary is not safely tucked away overseas as she’d assumed but in fact lives in New York and works in the literary world, she is fundamentally threatened and intrigued in equal measure. On paper, Rosemary sounds like a better version of Naomi—but if they both fell for the same man, they must have something more essential in common. 
 
Determined to figure out how their stories intertwine, Naomi’s casual Instagram stalking morphs into a full-blown friendship under false pretenses. She can’t seem to get herself to quit Rosemary, in whom she discovers an unexpected confidant—and she can’t stop writing about her either, having now found a more interesting subject for her nascent novel. As her lies and half-truths spiral out of her control, and fact and fiction become increasingly difficult to separate, Naomi manipulates the most important people in her life—her family, her friends, Caleb, Rosemary, and, perhaps most devastatingly, herself—in pursuit of her craft. Ultimately, she’s forced to decide who and what she’s willing to sacrifice to write them all the perfect ending.

Praise for A Novel Obsession
"Somehow simultaneously a high octane page-turner and a heartbreaking character study of a young woman so afraid of being alone, unloved, and uninteresting, that she can't help but leave behind claw marks on everything she grabs hold of. Barasch's genre-bending debut is inventive and electric, signaling the arrival of a bold new voice in fiction."
—Jean Kyoung Frazier, author of Pizza Girl

“Propulsive, unsettling and searingly funny, Barasch offers an unflinching (and often devastating) look at self-worth, loneliness and an entire generation’s preoccupation with performance and control. A Novel Obsession is the most entertaining book I’ve read all summer.”
—Ella Berman, author of Read with Jenna book club pick The Comeback

“An utterly captivating meditation on femininity, identity, desire, and art, A Novel Obsession is a ride and a revelation. I read it with my heart in my throat.”
—Lauryn Chamberlain, author of Friends From Home