A com­ing-of-age nov­el in the spir­it of Vir­ginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dal­loway, this book intro­duces us to Ana Koehl, whose six­ti­eth birth­day serves as a reminder of the rela­tion­ships and deci­sions that have informed her life. Lisa Gor­nick has writ­ten an intel­li­gent, humor­ous, and char­ac­ter-dri­ven book that is full of com­pli­cat­ed fam­i­ly dynam­ics, roman­tic and pro­fes­sion­al pur­suits, and friend­ships that will either charm or frus­trate read­ers. Those who are famil­iar with the cul­tur­al, cre­ative, and intel­lec­tu­al land­scape of con­tem­po­rary New York City will par­tic­u­lar­ly appre­ci­ate Ana’s story.

It’s clear that Ana is not a woman who has it all — and yet it’s easy to under­stand why she, and those around her, are so eager to dis­miss or ignore the knots of her life. All of her rela­tion­ships — with her fam­i­ly, her best friend, and her clients — are com­pli­cat­ed. Out of these com­pli­ca­tions, Gor­nick molds a char­ac­ter with the strength and vibran­cy to hold read­ers’ atten­tion. Ana and her exten­sive sup­port­ing cast are nei­ther heroes nor vil­lains; it is left to read­ers to choose where their sym­pa­thies lie. 

While some may find the numer­ous con­flicts over­whelm­ing, Ana Turns is extreme­ly well suit­ed for rau­cous book club dis­cus­sions — espe­cial­ly those in which bev­er­ages are involved.