An assured and savagely funny novel about three old friends as they navigate careers, husbands, an ex- fiancé, new suitors, and, most importantly, their relationships with one another

After a devastating break-up with her fiancé, Geraldine is struggling to get her life back on track in Toronto. Her two old friends, Sunny and Rachel, left ages ago for New York, where they’ve landed good jobs, handsome husbands, and unfairly glamorous lives (or at least so it appears to Geraldine). Sick of watching from the sidelines, Geraldine decides to force the universe to give her the big break she knows she deserves, and moves to New York City. After she arrives, though, and zigzags her way through the downtown art scene and rooftop party circuit, she discovers how hard it is to find her footing in a world of influencers and media darlings. Plus, the magazine where Sunny and Rachel work is on the brink of folding. Rachel is struggling to juggle her life as a writer, wife, and new mother–how is it that she was more confident and successful at twenty-five than in her mid-thirties? And Sunny’s life as a popular West Village tastemaker is not nearly as charmed as it seemed to Geraldine from Toronto. Perhaps worst of all, why are Sunny and Rachel–who’ve always been suspicious of each other–suddenly hanging out without Geraldine?

Hilarious and fiercely observed, How Could She is a novel of female friendship, an insider’s look into the cutthroat world of New York media–from print to podcasting–and a witty exploration of the ways we can and cannot escape our pasts. In Geraldine, Sunny, and Rachel, Mechling exposes how women can pragmatically manipulate one another in life and in love, and how the glamour, energy, and hope of New York City doesn’t deliver for everyone, but sometimes, in the most unexpected and delightful moments, embraces those who have just the right amount of hope and delusion.

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About the Author

Lauren Mechling has written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, The New Yorker online, and Vogue, where she writes a book column. She’s worked as a crime reporter and metro columnist for The New York Sun, a young adult novelist, and a features editor at The Wall Street Journal. A graduate of Harvard College, she lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.