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Victoria Redel's new novel, BEFORE EVERYTHING is out today from Viking. It's been receiving some great advance praise:
“Redel has crafted a lyrical ode to female friendship, proving that bonds can somehow be made of iron and elastic, sometimes strong and sometimes frail. She fleshes out the five main characters admirably for such a short book, linking each of their most vulnerable memories to their shared crisis. Fans of Anne Tyler and Jennifer Close will adore this warmhearted and clear-eyed novel.” —Booklist (Starred Review)
Gorgeous, a heartbreaker, a non-stop dazzler, a major achievement. Thank you, Victoria Redel. — Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Hours
Victoria Redel bears witness to a remarkable group of women, effortlessly weaving back and forth through time, each thread revealing the cracks and secrets of their complex lives, while also drawing them closer. . . . Redel proves that female friendship is the quiet, steady engine that truly runs the world. — Hannah Tinti, author of The Good Thief
Before Everything is, well, everything you want a novel about life, death, and friendship to be—smart, moving, sweeping, poetic, stinging, just beautiful. I loved these women (and their men) and this elegy to their long-reaching bonds. — Dani Shapiro, author of Still Writing
Before Everything is a riveting, timely story that explores the unsettlingly beautiful, emotionally charged landscape that is revealed when old friends embrace what they have never before admitted: the limits of mortality and the boundlessness of friendship. — Ruth Ozeki, author of A Tale for the Time Being