Margot

A moving portrait of a young woman’s struggle to break free of her upper-class upbringing amid the whirlwind years of the sexual revolution.

It’s the mid-1950s and Margot Thornsen is growing up between a Park Avenue apartment in New York and her family’s sumptuous Oyster Bay estate as the presumed heir to her late grandfather’s steel fortune. Her domineering mother has charted a course for her—to forego education and marry well—but Margot is more interested in microscopes and beetles and books. When a devastating fire brings the family legacy crashing down and the sexual revolution dawns, a new path opens up—the expansive world of late-1960s Radcliffe College and the intellectual, cultural, and sexual freedom Margot has been reaching for.

Hailed for her “intelligent and heartfelt fiction” (Kirkus Reviews), Wendell Steavenson writes with grace, precision, and great psychological perception. With Margot, she has crafted a vivid portrayal of the quiet torment of young women of its era, a comically caustic mother-daughter story, and a memorable evocation of one woman’s passion for the wonder of science.

About the Author: Wendell Steavenson, whose writing has appeared in The New Yorker, the Financial Times, and Granta, is the author of the novel Paris Metro and three books of reporting. Born in New York and raised in London, she now lives in Paris.