The cold case of a young Hollywood starlet’s death sets a contemporary writer on an epic and comic quest to uncover the truth, and its connection to his own family —a new novel by “a major talent” ( New York Times ) and “one of the most distinctive voices of his generation” ( Granta ). Jed Rosenthal hasn’t published a book in fourteen years, the mother of his child left him in a “trial separation” that has stretched on indefinitely, and he struggles to navigate the daily sorrows of their co-parenting arrangement. But the implosion of Jed’s family is simply a footnote in the larger history of the Rosenthal family’s decline.   Just days after the JFK assassination, Karyn “Cookie” Kupcinet was found dead in her Hollywood apartment. The press reported that the 22-year-old was strangled, yet unanswered questions linger to this day. Cookie’s parents—Chicago royalty, Irv and Essee Kupcinet—had been close friends with Jed's grandparents, but in the aftermath of her death, their friendship abruptly and inexplicably ended. Decades later, Jed pores over family stories, newspaper archives, old photos, and crime scene notes, believing that if he can divine the truth of Cookie's death—whether it was suicide, murder, or part of a larger conspiracy—it might shed light on a mystery closer to home.    Spanning seventy plus years, and weaving together family drama and a true-life unsolved case, The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter is a singular, wryly comic, and deeply human exploration into friendship and the bonds that sustain us.   "A moody and engrossing meditation on the ephemerality of memory, the persistence of family myths and a haunting ode to a bygone Chicago. A memorable novel of the stories and people everybody has already forgotten."― New York Times Book Review "This chatty yet reflective novel explores the relationship between two real-life couples...Throughout, Orner weighs the slippery connections among family, identity, and history.”― The New Yorker "It’s a remarkable read, so tricky to parse or summarize, so willing to subvert wherever you think it’s headed...His sentences have a comfortable bittersweet fogginess that snaps into view around strange and telling specifics...You never know where his paragraphs will leave you."― Chicago Tribune "[Orner's] exuberant new novel...packs the punch of his short stories, dramatizing a real-life unsolved murder, both a homage to Hollywood noir and a meditation on how and why our deepest connections can betray us."― Boston Globe "A rich and messy study of a man compelled to solve both a murder mystery and a more existential one, while wondering if he’s fit for the job...What Faulkner did for bitter Mississippians, Orner does for glum Jewish Chicago families...The melancholy charm of this novel...is that even with all the facts at hand, families will forever be sources of loss, frustration, and mystery."― Alta "Broken families are an Orner specialty...So is artful prose...Playing to his strengths, he weaves old-school boldface-type journalism and the stubborn persistence of family secrets."― Los Angeles Times “[An] engrossing and witty yarn in which secrets kept and secrets told abound.”― Toronto Star "Orner, an acclaimed writer of short stories, is not interested in the lurid; the book is set in Chicago, where Kupcinet’s father was a famous journalist, and unfurls in an episodic style that showcases Orner’s skill with brief but potent scenes."― Washington Post "Introspective, churning, and deeply personal, wrestling questions of family and broken relationships under the guise of a true crime murder-mystery... The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter is a dizzying but delightful journey between fact and fiction."― Chicago Magazine "A riv­et­ing, rule-break­ing, genre-bend­ing, and mul­ti-tex­tured new nov­el of gen­er­a­tional ache… The Gos­sip Colum­nist’s Daugh­ter  is a beau­ti­ful, yearn­ing book of ​'old hurts and sor­rows.'"― Jewish Book Council "In brief, atmospheric, psychologically intricate chapters, Orner evokes the mid-twentieth-century zeitgeist and the present while charting the highs and lows of ambition, fame, and clout. Each lambent scene is permeated with Jed’s blues and sense of the absurd as he contemplates sorrow, marriage, parenthood, failure, loneliness, and the unnerving fact 'that families lie to themselves, and that these lies get handed down as love.'”― Booklist (starred review) "A wild ride and an immersive Chicago novel, in which the town threatens to toddle off its axis."― Kirkus Reviews “A rewarding literary experiment.”  ― Publishers Weekly "Time and time again, Peter Orner has gifted us doors into worlds that remind us, no matter our differences, how connected we are to each other and how much farther we need to traverse to be better. With his first novel in fifteen years, Orner continues to surprise and guide: this is fiction that captures so perfectly a family’s mysteries, secrets, and history; and in doing