The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib

The Girls at 17 Swann Street by Yara Zgheib| Expected publication: February 5th 2019 by St. Martin’s Press |  384 Pages | Goodreads

PUBLISHER’S DESCRIPTION

“Anna Roux was a professional dancer who followed the man of her dreams from Paris to Missouri. There, alone with her biggest fears – imperfection, failure, loneliness – she spirals down anorexia and depression till she weighs a mere eighty-eight pounds. Forced to seek treatment, she is admitted as a patient at 17 Swann Street, a peach pink house where pale, fragile women with life-threatening eating disorders live. Women like Emm, the veteran; quiet Valerie; Julia, always hungry. Together, they must fight their diseases and face six meals a day.

Yara Zgheib’s poetic and poignant debut novel is a haunting, intimate journey of a young woman’s struggle to reclaim her life. Every bite causes anxiety. Every flavor induces guilt. And every step Anna takes toward recovery will require strength, endurance, and the support of the girls at 17 Swann Street.”

✅ REVIEW

A harrowing novel about a twenty-six year old Parisian girl battling anorexia. Once I started reading this book, I could not put it down.

It opens up with Anna, the main character, as she checks into 17 Swann Street, a residence that provides treatment to women with eating disorders. The name “Anna” is not random, many sufferers refer to anorexia as “ana”.

The illness, the center, and the characters are depicted in a complex and compassionate light. The author did and excellent job describing the emotional process, I felt connected and captivated by this story.

Overall, I loved this book and recommend it to readers of contemporary fiction as well as those interested in subjects dealing with mental health.

Received ARC from the publisher via Netgalley

✅ BOOK SOURCE AND FORMAT

Netgalley, eARC