We All Love the Beautiful Girls

Who suffers when the privileged fall?One frigid winter night, Mia and Michael Slate’s comfortable world dissolves in an instant when they discover that their best friend has cheated them out of their life savings. At the same time, a few doors down, their teenaged son passes out in the snow at a party–a mistake whose consequences will shatter not just their family, but an entire community.In this arresting, masterful page-turner shot through with fierce, clear-eyed compassion and a sublime insight into human fragility, award-winning novelist Proulx explores the savage underpinnings of betrayal, infidelity, and revenge–and a multilayered portrait of love, in all its glory, that no reader will soon forget.

Reviews of We All Love the Beautiful Girls

"Most Anticipated Fiction" — 49th Shelf list "With Joanne's raw prose, and surprising plot twists, we cling to the pages as she captures the actions and emotional impulse of each character as they are faced with adversity. . . . this isn't a traditional family drama." — Beaux Mondes "We All Love the Beautiful Girls details the aftermath, as the affluent young family's lives dissolve into a chaotic spiral of affairs and secret escapes. She preys on simmering class anxieties to craft a dark thriller about the pretense, deception and destruction that ensues when rich people lose their safety net." — Toronto Life "Joanne Proulx's second novel is a powerful exploration of anger and sex… Proulx lays out what happens when very privileged people cross the line of social acceptability. . . . The book is also about anger and its consequences, both sexual and physical."– Peter Robb, ARTSFILE "It is impossible not to marvel at Proulx's mastery."– National Post "Proulx is, in other words, a talented inhibitor of people unlike herself…every new writer that surfaces so blessed should be cherished."– Toronto Star "Joanne Proulx is a rare talent."– Lauren B. Davis "'Be good, ' one character tells another early in We All Love the Beautiful Girls. No one in this devastating novel heeds this advice. Proulx has written a story that's as gorgeous as the winter stars overhead. You will all love this beautiful book."– Neil Smith, author of Boo "We All Love the Beautiful Girls has the ability to leave a reader breathless. The plot twists are daring. The characters and their dialogue capture the ways in which adversity can alter people. Lovers' wounds are plastered across every page and the veneer of civility becomes shockingly thin. And yet, in the end, love, decency, and forgiveness triumph. Think of the 1986 David Lynch film, Blue Velvet, in which brutality lurks just beneath the surface of everyday life, then erupts ferociously before disappearing back into the depths."– Quill & Quire "With We All Love the Beautiful Girls, Proulx … moves firmly into John Cheever territory, exploring with a keen eye and incisive prose the suburbs of quiet desperation, peeling back facades to reveal the desperation and violence that lurk just below the surface. When that violence comes to a head, the results are as devastating as they are unexpected."– Toronto Star "An emotional thrill-ride that manages to capture the tenderness and rage unique to adolescence and middle-age, the heartbreak of first love, and the fragility of even the most stable-seeming marriage."– Zoe Whittall, bestselling author of The Best Kind of People "When I finished this novel, I wanted to tell everyone I knew to read it. It is one of the best, most important books I've read in a very long time."–The Globe and Mail "We All Love the Beautiful Girls is a gripping tale of love gone awry. In a lively plot filled with twists and turns, Joanne Proulx's characters flail about and pay a high price for their impulsiveness and rage. This is a book to keep readers glued to the page, and enthralled by the author's skill and wisdom."–Lynne Sharon Schwartz, author of Two-Part Inventions