Curtis Sittenfeld

A retelling of Pride & Prejudice, set in modern-day Cincinnati. When their father has a health scare, the Bennet sisters return to their childhood home in Cincinnati to help - and discover that the sprawling mansion they grew up in is crumbling and the family is in disarray. And Mrs. Bennet has one thing on her mind: how to marry off her daughters...

Sittenfeld's wryly hilarious and insightful new collection, HELP YOURSELF, illuminates human experience and gracefully upends our assumptions about class and race, envy and disappointment, gender dynamics and celebrity. Suburban friends fall out after a racist encounter at a birthday party is caught on video and posted on Facebook; an illustrious Manhattan film crew are victims of their own snobbery when they underestimate a pre-school teacher from the Mid-West; and a group of young writers fight about love and narrative style as they compete for a prestigious bursary. Connecting each of these three stories is Sittenfeld's truthful yet merciless eye, as her characters stagger from awkwardness, to humiliation and, if they're lucky, to reconciliation. Full of tenderness and compassion, this dazzling collection celebrates our humanity in all its pettiness and glory.