Herself, of Course: A Novel

The great Alice McDermott returns with a sparkling, powerful new novel of one woman’s life, told in three remarkable acts.

It is 1980 in New York City, and a young woman is perched on a radiator cover in a spacious SoHo loft. A famous photographer snaps her portrait for a full-page review of her debut novel. Blithely, he predicts her future: “Eventually, no one will really distinguish one book from another—that’s when they’ll start calling you ‘beloved.’”

Victoria Gannon—Vicky to her family, ...