Stephanie Danler – författare

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A thrilling novel of the senses and a coming-of-age tale, following a small-town girl into the electrifying world of New York City and the education of a lifetime at one of the most exclusive restaurants in Manhattan. • "Brilliantly written.... Outstanding." —The New York Times Book ReviewNewly arrived in New York City, twenty-two-year-old Tess lands a job working front of house at a celebrated downtown restaurant. What follows is her education: in champagne and cocaine, love and lust, dive bars and fine dining rooms, as she learns to navigate the chaotic, enchanting, punishing life she has chosen. The story of a young woman’s coming-of-age, set against the glitzy, grimy backdrop of New York’s most elite restaurants, in Sweetbitter Stephanie Danler deftly conjures the nonstop and high-adrenaline world of the food industry and evokes the infinite possibilities, the unbearable beauty, and the fragility and brutality of being young and adrift.

INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER  *  A thrilling novel of the senses and a coming-of-age tale, following a small-town girl into the electrifying world of New York City and the education of a lifetime at one of the most exclusive restaurants in Manhattan.  Perfect for readers of Kitchen Confidential and Blood, Bones and Butter. Twenty-two, and knowing no one, Tess leaves home to begin her adult life in New York City. Thus begins a year that is both enchanting and punishing, in a low-level job at “the best restaurant in New York City.” Grueling hours and a steep culinary learning curve awaken her to the beauty of oysters, the finest Champagnes, the appellations of Burgundy. At the same time, she opens herself to friendships—and love—set against the backdrop of dive bars and late nights.  As her appetites sharpen—for food and wine, but also for knowledge, experience, and belonging—Tess is drawn into a darkly alluring love triangle that will prove to be her most exhilarating and painful lesson of all.    Stephanie Danler deftly conjures the nonstop and purely adrenalized world of the restaurant—conversations interrupted, phrases overheard, and suggestions below the surface. Evoking the infinite possibility of being young in New York with heart-stopping accuracy, Sweetbitter is ultimately about the power of what remains after disillusionment, and the wisdom that comes from experience, sweet and bitter.From the Hardcover edition.

From the author of the best-selling Sweetbitter comes an intimate, searingly honest memoir of growing up the child of addicts, of how that turbulent, often harrowing experience has affected her at every stage of her life, and of how she has struggled to transcend this unwanted legacy.When Sweetbitter was published to great success, the author knew she should be happy, but she felt incapable of it, emotionally shut down. She knew too that the roots of her inability to feel were deep in her childhood. With some hope of finally facing down her past--of looking clearly at her parents and what she did and did not inherit from them--she returned to California after a decade away, a decade in which she''d honed the practice of apathy. Stray is an account of that remarkable emotional journey. We meet her mother: a depressed alcoholic, now mentally and physically handicapped by a tragic brain aneurysm and living in squalor; and her father: once a successful businessman, now a constantly relapsing crystal meth addict living in halfway homes and shelters. And we are with the author as she remembers and relives the most difficult events of the ten years since she left "home"--betrayals and infidelities, her own problems with drinking, an affair with a married man whose darkness mirrored her own--and as she discovers the bounds of forgiveness, of her parents, but especially of herself.

From the bestselling author of Sweetbitter, a memoir of growing up in a family shattered by lies and addiction, and of one woman's attempts to find a life beyond the limits of her past. After selling her first novel--a dream she'd worked long and hard for--Stephanie Danler knew she should be happy. Instead, she found herself driven to face the difficult past she'd left behind a decade ago: a mother disabled by years of alcoholism, further handicapped by a tragic brain aneurysm; a father who abandoned the family when she was three, now a meth addict in and out of recovery. After years in New York City she's pulled home to Southern California by forces she doesn't totally understand, haunted by questions of legacy and trauma. Here, she works toward answers, uncovering hard truths about her parents and herself as she explores whether it's possible to change the course of her history.Stray is a moving, sometimes devastating, brilliantly written and ultimately inspiring exploration of the landscapes of damage and survival.

From the author of the international bestseller Sweetbitter, a memoir of survival, starting over, and love in all its complicated guises.Even after achieving her dream of selling her debut novel, Stephanie Danler feels adrift in New York. Struggling in the throes of a doomed relationship and haunted by her tumultuous childhood, something nameless compels her to return home to Southern California.In a cottage in Laurel Canyon, as a new life begins to shape itself, she finally succumbs to memories of the past that have proved impossible to escape. A father who swung in and out of her life erratically, charming and mercurial and prone to addiction. A mother now disabled by years of alcoholism and an aneurysm, who cannot remember the abuse she inflicted. The looming, desolate mountains of Colorado, and a teenage freedom that nearly killed her. And above all, the painful love and forgiveness for those who failed her over and over again.‘It's such a thrill to watch a writer open up her greediest thoughts, to slice open little pockets of her skin and root around underneath her flesh.’ New York Times Book Review  ‘A compulsive, neck-breaking masterpiece.’ Lisa Taddeo‘This is a story of triumph: the triumph of grit, talent, grace, and beauty over the dark pull of inner demons.’ Dani Shapiro

From the author of the international bestseller Sweetbitter, a memoir of survival, starting over, and love in all its complicated guises. Even after achieving her dream of selling her debut novel, Stephanie Danler feels adrift in New York. Struggling in the throes of a doomed relationship and haunted by her tumultuous childhood, something nameless compels her to return home to Southern California. In a cottage in Laurel Canyon, as a new life begins to shape itself, she finally succumbs to memories of the past that have proved impossible to escape. A father who swung in and out of her life erratically, charming and mercurial and prone to addiction. A mother now disabled by years of alcoholism and an aneurysm, who cannot remember the abuse she inflicted. The looming, desolate mountains of Colorado, and a teenage freedom that nearly killed her. And above all, the painful love and forgiveness for those who failed her over and over again. ‘It's such a thrill to watch a writer open up her greediest thoughts, to slice open little pockets of her skin and root around underneath her flesh.’ New York Times Book Review   ‘A compulsive, neck-breaking masterpiece.’ Lisa Taddeo ‘This is a story of triumph: the triumph of grit, talent, grace, and beauty over the dark pull of inner demons.’ Dani Shapiro

From the internationally bestselling author of Sweetbitter, a provocative and heady mix of true crime and dark pyschological noir, set during the Menendez trial in 1990s LALos Angeles, early 90s. Rodney King has been beaten, East LA has burned, the Northridge earthquake has collapsed the 10 freeway, and two handsome brothers from Beverly Hills are on trial for the brutal murder of their parents. The entire country is riveted.So is Hugo Byrne.A renowned journalist – decades sober, privately repressed, and haunted by the violent death of his own daughter – Hugo arrives at the Chateau Marmont to cover the trial for a glossy national magazine. He intends to write the definitive account of the Menendez trial. Instead, he finds himself less interested in the evidence, and pulled into something murkier, lurid, and tragic.What happens outside the courtroom is just as fascinating as the theatre inside. And no one fascinates Hugo more than his close friend Liv Ellis, a quick-witted, bookish Beverly Hills society wife who accompanies Hugo to the trial and whose obsession with the trial is as mysterious as her origins.What happened in the Menendez house? Who is Liv Ellis? And what happens in the homes of the glitterati that haunt the city’s seen and be seen restaurants, hotel lounges and tennis clubs?A heady mix of true crime and dark psychological noir, Smog is a story of wealth, privilege, and abuse – a suspenseful inquiry into the dark heart of that universal institution that is supposed to protect us but so often betrays: the family.

From the internationally bestselling author of Sweetbitter, a provocative and heady mix of true crime and dark pyschological noir, set during the Menendez trial in 1990s LALos Angeles, early 90s. Rodney King has been beaten, East LA has burned, the Northridge earthquake has collapsed the 10 freeway, and two handsome brothers from Beverly Hills are on trial for the brutal murder of their parents. The entire country is riveted.So is Hugo Byrne.A renowned journalist – decades sober, privately repressed, and haunted by the violent death of his own daughter – Hugo arrives at the Chateau Marmont to cover the trial for a glossy national magazine. He intends to write the definitive account of the Menendez trial. Instead, he finds himself less interested in the evidence, and pulled into something murkier, lurid, and tragic.What happens outside the courtroom is just as fascinating as the theatre inside. And no one fascinates Hugo more than his close friend Liv Ellis, a quick-witted, bookish Beverly Hills society wife who accompanies Hugo to the trial and whose obsession with the trial is as mysterious as her origins.What happened in the Menendez house? Who is Liv Ellis? And what happens in the homes of the glitterati that haunt the city’s seen and be seen restaurants, hotel lounges and tennis clubs?A heady mix of true crime and dark psychological noir, Smog is a story of wealth, privilege, and abuse – a suspenseful inquiry into the dark heart of that universal institution that is supposed to protect us but so often betrays: the family.

From the author of the international bestsellerSweetbitter, a memoir of survival, starting over, and love in all its complicated guises. Even after achieving her dream of selling her debut novel, Stephanie Danler feels adrift in New York. Struggling in the throes of a doomed relationship and haunted by her tumultuous childhood, something nameless compels her to return home to Southern California. In a cottage in Laurel Canyon, as a new life begins to shape itself, she finally succumbs to memories of the past that have proved impossible to escape. A father who swung in and out of her life erratically, charming and mercurial and prone to addiction. A mother now disabled by years of alcoholism and an aneurysm, who cannot remember the abuse she inflicted. The looming, desolate mountains of Colorado, and a teenage freedom that nearly killed her. And above all, the painful love and forgiveness for those who failed her over and over again. '';Its such a thrill to watch a writer open up her greediest thoughts, to slice open little pockets of her skin and root around underneath her flesh.'' New York Times Book Review '';A compulsive, neck-breaking masterpiece.'' Lisa Taddeo '';This is a story of triumph: the triumph of grit, talent, grace, and beauty over the dark pull of inner demons.'' Dani Shapiro

‘A fantastic read – think Girls meets Kitchen Confidential’ Stylist‘An adrenalised love song’ Mail on Sunday'A stunning debut novel’ Jay McInerney, author of Bright Lights, Big City*AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016 | A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | A USA TODAY BESTSELLER | AN INDIE BESTSELLER* Tess is the 22-year-old narrator of this stunning first novel. Moving to New York, a place at the centre of the universe, from a place that feels like ‘nowhere to live’, she lands a job at a renowned Union Square restaurant and begins to navigate the chaotic and punishing life of a waiter, on and off duty. As her appetites awaken – not just for food and wine but also for knowledge and friendship – Tess becomes helplessly drawn into a dark, alluring love triangle.Sweetbitter is a novel of the senses. Of taste and hunger, of love and desire, and the wisdom that comes from our experiences, both sweet and bitter.

‘A fantastic read – think Girls meets Kitchen Confidential’ Stylist‘An adrenalised love song’ Mail on Sunday'A stunning debut novel’ Jay McInerney, author of Bright Lights, Big City*AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016 | A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | A USA TODAY BESTSELLER | AN INDIE BESTSELLER* Tess is the 22-year-old narrator of this stunning first novel. Moving to New York, a place at the centre of the universe, from a place that feels like ‘nowhere to live’, she lands a job at a renowned Union Square restaurant and begins to navigate the chaotic and punishing life of a waiter, on and off duty. As her appetites awaken – not just for food and wine but also for knowledge and friendship – Tess becomes helplessly drawn into a dark, alluring love triangle.Sweetbitter is a novel of the senses. Of taste and hunger, of love and desire, and the wisdom that comes from our experiences, both sweet and bitter.