Staff Pick
Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the Manson murders (much like The Girls by Emma Cline), Cruel Beautiful World captures the polarizing feeling of naïveté and responsibility felt by sisters Charlotte and Lucy — but also that of an entire generation. It is a thrilling, haunting, and emotional novel of grief and loss, but also the unmistakable bond of sisterhood and the great lengths we will go through for love — even the love for our family. Recommended By Kate L., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Caroline Leavitt is at her mesmerizing best in this haunting, nuanced portrait of love, sisters, and the impossible legacy of family.
It’s 1969, and sixteen-year-old Lucy is about to run away to live off the grid in rural Pennsylvania, a rash act that will have vicious repercussions for both her and her older sister, Charlotte. As Lucy’s default caretaker for most of their lives, Charlotte’s youth has been marked by the burden of responsibility, but never more so than when Lucy’s dream of a rural paradise turns into a nightmare.
Cruel Beautiful World examines the intricate, infinitesimal distance between seduction and love, loyalty and duty, and explores what happens when you’re responsible for things you cannot fix.
Review
"At once a page-turner that leaves you holding your breath, and a gorgeous meditation on love and family. Cruel Beautiful World had me in its thrall from start to finish." J. Courtney Sullivan, author of The Engagements
Review
"With Cruel, Beautiful World, Caroline Leavitt has done the seemingly impossible: she's written a gorgeous, seductive novel that is also terrifying and pulse-pounding. This is the kind of coming-of-age novel for which readers yearn: we witness the emotional and spiritual evolution a sixteen-year-old girl while American society, in the early 1970s, seems to devolve all around her. Like the era it represents, Cruel, Beautiful World is at times hopeful and nihilistic, beautiful and savage, mesmerizing and dangerous." Wiley Cash, New York Times bestselling author of A Land More Kind Than Home and This Dark Road to Mercy
Review
"Two sisters — impulsive Lucy and sensible Charlotte — make decisions that will haunt the rest of their lives. Set in the tumultuous late 1960s and early 1970s, Cruel Beautiful World is a riveting novel about love and loss, secrets and lies, and what it means to be a family. Its twists and turns will keep you reading late into the night." Christina Baker-Kline, author of Orphan Train
Review
"Tender and tragic, with a shooting star of hope, Leavitt's profound latest is about the connections of siblings, the mystery of love—first, last and dangerous—and the struggle to accept what can never be changed." Sara Gruen, author of At the Water’s Edge
Review
"Backdropped by the Vietnam War and the Manson murders, Cruel Beautiful World is a fast-moving page-turner about the naiveté of youth and the malignity of power. Leavitt explores with a keen eye the intersection of love, family, and the anxiety of an era." Lily King, author of Euphoria
About the Author
Caroline Leavitt is the award-winning author of twelve novels, including the New York Times Bestsellers Pictures of You and Is This Tomorrow. Her essays and stories have been included in New York magazine, Psychology Today, More, Parenting, Redbook, and Salon. She’s a book critic for People, The Boston Globe and the San Francisco Chronicle, and she teaches writing online at Stanford and UCLA, as well as working with private clients.