The Friday Night Knitting Club

A charming and moving novel about female friendship and the experiences that knit us together-even when we least expect it.

Walker & Daughter is Georgia Walker's little yarn shop, tucked into a quiet storefront on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The Friday Night Knitting Club was started by some of Georgia's regulars, who gather once a week to work on their latest projects and to chat — and occasionally clash — over their stories of love, life, and everything in between.

Georgia has her hands full, juggling the demands of running the store and raising her spunky teen daughter, Dakota, by herself. Thank goodness for Anita, her mentor and dear friend, and the rest of the members of the knitting club-who are just as varied as the skeins of yarn in the shop's bins. There's Petra, a prelaw student turned handbag designer; Darwin, a somewhat aloof feminist grad student; and Lucie, a petite, quiet woman who's harboring some secrets of her own.

However, unexpected changes soon throw these women's lives into disarray, and the shop's comfortable world gets shaken up like a snow globe. James, Georgia's ex, decides that he wants to play a larger role in Dakota's life — and possibly Georgia's as well. Kat, a former friend from high school, returns to New York as a rich Park Avenue wife and uneasily renews her old bond with Georgia. Meanwhile, Anita must confront her growing (and reciprocated) feelings for Marty, the kind neighborhood deli owner. And when the unthinkable happens, they realize what they've created: not just a knitting club, but a sisterhood.

"Between running her Manhattan yarn shop, Walker & Daughter, and raising her 12-year-old biracial daughter, Dakota, Georgia Walker has plenty on her plate in Jacobs's debut novel. But when Dakota's father reappears and a former friend contacts Georgia, Georgia's orderly existence begins to unravel. Her support system is her staff and the knitting club that meets at her store every Friday night, though each person has dramas of her own brewing. Jacobs surveys the knitters' histories, and the novel's pace crawls as the novel lurches between past and present, the latter largely occupied by munching on baked goods, sipping coffee and watching the knitters size each other up. Club members' troubles don't intersect so much as build on common themes of domestic woes and betrayal. It takes a while, but when Jacobs, who worked at Redbook and Working Woman, hits her storytelling stride, poignant twists propel the plot and help the pacing find a pleasant rhythm." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Kate Jacobs' breezy first novel reads like Steel Magnolias set in Manhattan....It's a clever premise, the book is a breezy read, and the characters are mostly well drawn and appealing." USA Today

"The female cast is likeable, but Jacobs pushes hard the idea of knitting as a metaphor for life, which thickens the novel's syrupy Lifetime Channel melodrama until it congeals into a bizarre ending." Kirkus Reviews

"The yarn picks up steam as it draws to a conclusion, and an unexpected tragedy makes it impossible to put down. Jacobs' winning first novel is bound to have appeal among book clubs." Booklist

In this charming debut novel, Jacobs pens a moving story about a single mother who runs a Manhattan yarn shop where some of her regulars gather to chat over their stories of love, life, and everything in between. Film rights optioned by Julia Roberts' Red Om production company and Universal Pictures.

Juggling the demands of her yarn shop and single-handedly raising a teenage daughter has made Georgia Walker grateful for her Friday Night Knitting Club. And when the unthinkable happens, these women will discover that what theyve created isnt just a knitting club--its a sisterhood.Berkley Publishing Group

Kate Jacobs is a writer and editor who divides her time between New York and Los Angeles. A former staffer at Redbook, Working Woman, and Family Life, she is now a freelance editor at the website for Lifetime Television. The Friday Night Knitting Club is her first novel.