Save Your Own

Meet Gillian Cormier-Brandenburg: a virginal, narcoleptic, atheistic Harvard Divinity School student struggling to finish her Ph.D. thesis. When her fellowship is revoked, Gillian must venture outside the walls of academia in search of a new source of income as well as interview subjects for her dissertation. She takes a job at Responsibility House, a halfway house for recovering addicts. Here pintsize Gillian is charged with the unlikely task of imposing order on unruly tenants, including motorcycle-obsessed Janet, impulsive former prostitute Florine, and self-righteous Stacy, who begin to inspire her to rethink her own dreams and desires.

A delightful read for all those who have ever wished they could be a little more than they are, Save Your Own is the perfect self-made Cinderella story. |

"This inventive debut doesn't imitate the traditional British academic comedy but, rather, forges an identity all its own." Kirkus Reviews, Starred

"Gillian Cormier-Brandenburg is a romantic heroine unlike any other...Save Your Own is a keeper." USA Today

"Elisabeth Brink hooks the reader...and we start to pull for [Gillian] in this colorful 'ugly duckling to swan' story." Boston Globe

"A smashing debut -- hilarious, smart, and charming...One of the most original characters I've encountered in recent fiction..."--Stephen McCauley, author of Object of My Affection and The Man of the House.

"Sly, inventive, filled with irony and laughs and truth." -Susan Straight, author of A Million Nightingales and High-Wire Moon.

"A brutally honest and truly funny first novel by a writer of immense talent." -Peter Orner, author of The Second Coming of Mavala Shikonga

"Ultra-funny, super-sexy, and wickedly smart, with a philosophical heart that beats with furious, mystical passion." -Terri Giuliano Long, author of In Leah’s Wake