Only Children

A novel of childlike wonder and adult discord during the Great Depression—by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Nowhere City.

Dozing in the back seat of her father’s car, Mary Ann Hubbard is the happiest eight-year-old in the country. It’s 1935, and she and her parents are going to spend Fourth of July weekend at her headmistress’s farm in upstate New York. Joining them are the Zimmerns, whose daughter Lolly is Mary Ann’s best friend from school. While the two little girls frolic in the attic, endowing the rambling old house with wonder, creativity, and imagination, their parents are downstairs, mired in all the pleasure, pain, and occasional childishness of adulthood.

As an affair threatens to tear the two families apart, Lolly and Mary Ann retreat farther into playtime. By the end of the weekend, the girls begin to realize that becoming an adult and growing up can be two very different things.

The National Book Award–shortlisted author of Foreign Affairs gives a joyous glimpse into the innocence and irony of childhood during the Great Depression.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author’s collection.