Women and Children First

“Magnetic . . . The ennui of small-town life is perfectly captured in the slice-of-life vignettes, which coalesce into a riveting set of Rashomon-style retellings. Grabowski shows immense promise.” ―Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Gorgeous and lush, heartbreaking and cruel, the story of this complicated community and the women who are trying to survive in it will stick with you, hauntingly present long after as young Lucy herself.”―The Brooklyn Rail

“How often do you finish a novel, only to find yourself flipping back to the first page and thinking, I really ought to start that all over again? . . . Set in a struggling New England town, the novel unfolds through interlocking stories―something like Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge or Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad . . . a rich and textured book, with shades not only of those female authors, but also Mary Gaitskill or Lorrie Moore, through its investigation into female agency, power, and vulnerability.” ―Vogue.com