MP3 CD Format From the New York Times bestselling author and advice columnist, a poignant and funny debut novel about the residents of a women's hotel in 1960s New York City. The Beidermeier might be several rungs lower on the ladder than the real-life Barbizon, but its residents manage to occupy one another nonetheless. There's Katherine, the first-floor manager, lightly cynical and more than lightly suggestible. There's Lucianne, a workshy party girl caught between the love of comfort and an instinctive bridling at convention, Kitty the sponger, Ruth the failed hairdresser, and Pauline the typesetter. And there's Stephen, the daytime elevator operator and part-time Cooper Union student. The residents give up breakfast, juggle competing jobs at rival presses, abandon their children, get laid off from the telephone company, attempt to retrain as stenographers, all with the shared awareness that their days as an institution are numbered, and they'd better make the most of it while it lasts. As trenchant as the novels of Dawn Powell and Rona Jaffe and as immersive as The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Lessons in Chemistry , Women's Hotel is a modern classic--and it is very, very funny. "Every character is distinct, and their backstories, misadventures, and little victories intertwine skillfully. Lavery has a wonderful ear for a period turn-of-phrase and his prose glitters with humor and affection for human foibles...[A] stay at the Biedermeier is pure pleasure." -- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)" "I cannot imagine a more perfect use of an afternoon than reading this book." -- "New Yorker" "There is addiction and poverty and aching loneliness, the pain and joy of midcentury queerness, along with a description of a terrible, misleading haircut that's one of the better things I've read this year." -- "New York Times Book Review" Daniel M. Lavery is the author of Something That May Shock and Discredit You and the current Dear Prudence at Slate.