{"product_id":"you-are-one-of-them-isbn-9780143125440","title":"You Are One of Them","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"A hugely absorbing first novel from a writer with a fluid, vivid style and a rare knack for balancing the pleasure of entertainment with the deeper gratification of insight. More, please.”\u003cbr\u003e—Maggie Shipstead,\u003ci\u003e The New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e (Editors’ Choice)\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"A story about Russia, the United States, friendship, identity, defection, and deception that is smart, startling, and worth reading regardless of when you were born.”\u003cbr\u003e—Kathryn Schulz, \u003ci\u003eNew York Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\"Holt's beguiling debut… in which there is no difference between personal and political betrayal, vividly conjures the anxieties of the Cold War without ever lapsing into nostalgia.\"\u003cbr\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSarah Zuckerman and Jennifer Jones are best friends in an upscale part of Washington, D.C., in the politically charged 1980s.  Sarah is the shy, wary product of an unhappy home: her father abandoned the family to return to his native England; her agoraphobic mother is obsessed with fears of nuclear war.  Jenny is an all-American girl who has seemingly perfect parents.  With Cold War rhetoric reaching a fever pitch in 1982, the ten-year-old girls write letters to Soviet premier Yuri Andropov asking for peace.  But only Jenny's letter receives a response, and Sarah is left behind when her friend accepts the Kremlin's invitation to visit the USSR and becomes an international media sensation.  The girls' icy relationship still hasn't thawed when Jenny and her parents die tragically in a plane crash in 1985.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTen years later, Sarah is about to graduate from college when she receives a mysterious letter from Moscow suggesting that Jenny's death might have been a hoax.  She sets off to the former Soviet Union in search of the truth, but the more she delves into her personal Cold War history, the harder it is to separate facts from propaganda.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eYou Are One of Them\u003c\/i\u003e is a taut, moving debut about the ways in which we define ourselves against others and the secrets we keep from those who are closest to us.  In her insightful forensic of a mourned friendship, Holt illuminates the long lasting sting of abandonment and the measures we take to bring back those we have lost.“\u003ci\u003eYou Are One of Them\u003c\/i\u003e is \u003cb\u003ea hugely absorbing first novel from a writer with a fluid, vivid style and a rare knack for balancing the pleasure of entertainment with the deeper gratification of insight.\u003c\/b\u003e More, please.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Maggie Shipstead, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review \u003c\/i\u003e(Editors’ Choice)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Holt's \u003cb\u003ebeguiling debut\u003c\/b\u003e… in which there is no difference between personal and political betrayal, vividly conjures the anxieties of the Cold War without ever lapsing into nostalgia.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e-\u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“If, like me, you are a child of the eighties, you could read Elliott Holt’s \u003ci\u003eYou Are One of Them \u003c\/i\u003ejust for the flashbacks: Benetton sweaters, friendship pins, Casey Kasem, the whole shebang. Ultimately, though, all that is just mise-en-scène. Around it, Holt builds a story about Russia, the United States, friendship, identity, defection, and deception that is \u003cb\u003esmart, startling, and worth reading regardless of when you were born\u003c\/b\u003e.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e—Kathryn Schulz, \u003ci\u003eNew York\u003c\/i\u003e Magazine\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Alluring…Elliott Holt’s debut novel, ‘You Are One of Them,’ a story about youth, about lying, about the Cold War, about Russia, and about womanhood, approaches its heady subjects by letting them live and breathe through the narrative itself. \u003cb\u003eTo read it is to forget you’re reading a work of literature, and instead to think that someone is telling you a story — someone who happens to have a wildly intelligent sense of detail and just enough restraint to keep her storytelling skill from showing its seams\u003c\/b\u003e.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Boston Globe \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Holt has found inventive ways to use language that suggests the porousness of identity, the correspondence between self and other, neighbor and foreigner, \u003ci\u003eyou \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003ethem\u003c\/i\u003e. Her ingenuity brings distinction to this \u003cb\u003econfident, crafty first novel\u003c\/b\u003e.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eWashington Post \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[An] accomplished debut…\u003ci\u003eYou Are One of Them\u003c\/i\u003e beautifully compresses and expands time, place and the boundaries of the self…\u003cb\u003eTransfixing\u003c\/b\u003e.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle  \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“A novel of grand and intimate scope, artfully balanced between the political and personal. The book’s narrative satisfies on multiple levels, as both \u003cb\u003ea compelling character study and a psychological thriller with a ferociously intelligent ending\u003c\/b\u003e.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBookforum \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Like a \u003ci\u003ematryoshka\u003c\/i\u003e doll, Elliott Holt’s bold, electric debut novel artfully unpacks its secrets…This is \u003cb\u003ean unflinching tale of self-deception and the struggle to lead an authentic life\u003c\/b\u003e.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eMore\u003c\/i\u003e Magazine \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“It’s that ambiguity that lends the conclusion of \u003ci\u003eYou Are One of Them\u003c\/i\u003e its power. The resolution to Holt’s novel brings together all of the elements raised in the preceding pages, from saber-rattling to childhood betrayals. It’s a dramatically satisfying ending that invokes those things that we can never know — and as such, it’s \u003cb\u003ea reflection of a haunted period of history\u003c\/b\u003e, of lessons learned in doublespeak that may well have rooted themselves too deeply in our collective minds for us to fully recover.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eMinneapolis Star Tribune \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“\u003cb\u003eAtmospheric\u003c\/b\u003e… Smoke and mirrors keep a reader guessing till the last pages, when Sarah at last frees herself from a lifetime of feeling left behind.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCleveland Plain Dealer  \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003cb\u003eA complex and beautifully written book\u003c\/b\u003e about secrets and relationships, as well as the things we do for closure.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003eVol. 1 Brooklyn   \u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Holt creates strong roots, both in 1980s America—with references to friendship pins, Casey Kasem, and the ever-persistent threat of nuclear war—and 1990s Moscow, where tracksuits and cigarettes are never far away. Telling details of Soviet oppression and Russia’s budding advertising industry paint a vivid portrait of a country testing the waters of democracy… \u003cb\u003e[Holt] writes with a pleasing, wry intelligence in this promising debut\u003c\/b\u003e.”\u003cbr\u003e—\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“[YOU ARE ONE OF THEM] \u003cb\u003eperfectly melds the personal and the political in this spot-on portrait of a girlhood friendship set against a Cold War backdrop\u003c\/b\u003e…Holt ably captures both the paranoia of the Cold War and the shabby yet genteel aura of an exhausted Moscow just after the collapse of the Berlin Wall. But it is her razor-sharp insights into the turbulent dynamics of female friendship that give this novel its heft.”                     \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBooklist \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Intimate and intelligent, \u003ci\u003eYou Are One of Them \u003c\/i\u003eis \u003cb\u003ea surprising story of friendship and loss\u003c\/b\u003e, but also a meditation on history and a reminder of how global events can reverberate through the smallest moments of ordinary lives.\"\u003cbr\u003e—Karen Thompson Walker, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eThe Age of Miracles\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Elliott Holt is not just a promising writer, but a great writer. She’s young, and she’s a master. \u003cb\u003eI was going to write that \u003ci\u003eYou Are One of Them \u003c\/i\u003ecould’ve been written by an Alice Munro or a Susan Minot\u003c\/b\u003e, but that would be wrong. Because this book could only have been written by Elliott Holt, whose powerful new voice is her own.”\u003cbr\u003e—Darin Strauss, author of \u003ci\u003eHalf a Life \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eChang and Eng\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Elliott Holt’s debut novel \u003ci\u003eYou Are One Of Th\u003c\/i\u003eem reads with the heartbreaking ring of truth to it as she \u003cb\u003edeftly taps a well of feeling that is at once primal, archetypical and deeply personal\u003c\/b\u003e. Through the character of Sarah, Holt explores the indelible stain of grief, a child’s desire for détente, and the inescapable awareness of the life that could have been but wasn’t. Holt’s ability to unwind the dangerous power of secrets and to blend fact and fiction, past and present, make for an evocative journey that circles around to illustrate how far we sometimes have to travel in order to find the self that was there all along.”\u003cbr\u003e—A.M. Homes, author of \u003ci\u003eMay We Be Forgiven\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Elliott Holt has done something utterly amazing. Through the experiences of Sarah Zuckerman, the fantastic and complicated narrator of \u003ci\u003eYou Are One of Them\u003c\/i\u003e, Holt shows us \u003cb\u003ea genuine and heartfelt coming of age story that so convincingly reveals the deceptions and half truths of growing up\u003c\/b\u003e. I have rarely seen such a thought-provoking and engrossing portrayal of how our experiences shape us and, consequently, those we most love. This is an eloquent, startling novel and Elliott Holt is a fearless writer.”\u003cbr\u003e—Kevin Wilson, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Family Fang \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eTunneling to the Center of the Earth \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eYou Are One of Them\u003c\/i\u003e journeys through the U.S. and Russia, perfectly capturing that frightening time in the 1980s when every child went to bed dreaming of mushroom clouds. Like the cold war, this remarkable novel revolves around hidden truths and unreliable friendships. Elliott Holt skillfully draws out her characters’ secrets, exploring the different ways we open and close our hearts, and delivering \u003cb\u003ea well-wrought tale of international and emotional intrigue\u003c\/b\u003e.”\u003cbr\u003e—Hannah Tinti, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Good Thief \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The great accomplishment in \u003ci\u003eYou Are One of Them \u003c\/i\u003eis how effortlessly the vast and global mixes with—and informs—the deeply felt story of a lost friendship. Elliott Holt is graceful, sharp and super-smart, and her novel is \u003cb\u003ea bildungsroman for the atomic age\u003c\/b\u003e.”\u003cbr\u003e—Lauren Groff, author of \u003ci\u003eArcadia \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Monsters of Templeton\u003c\/i\u003eElliott Holt's short fiction has appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe Kenyon Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGuernica\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eBellevue Literary Review\u003c\/i\u003e. She won a 2011 Pushcart Prize and is the runner-up of the 2011 PEN Emerging Writers Award. A graduate of the MFA program at Brooklyn College, where she won the Himan Brown Award, she has received fellowships from the Sewanee Writers' Conference, the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop and Yaddo. She is a former contributing editor at \u003ci\u003eOne Story\u003c\/i\u003e magazine and a former copywriter, who has worked at advertising agencies in Moscow, London, and New York. She currently resides in her hometown of Washington, D.C.We went swimming that afternoon, and I can still remember my first glimpse of Jenny underwater. We sank beneath the surface in unison and sat cross-legged in a breath-holding contest on the bottom of the pool. She wore a canary yellow bathing suit and green goggles and I could see her eyes open wide and staring at me, her rival. I forced my eyes open despite the sting of chlorine. From above, the pool looked glassy and hard, a surface that must be broken with force, but below, it was soft and beckoning, a membrane through which light sieved like sugar. The sunlight webbed across Jenny’s skin and through her hair, giving it a reddish tint. Suddenly, she stuck out her tongue. My laughter forced me up for air. “I win!” Jenny announced as she triumphed from below.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMrs. Jones asked about my family. What did my dad do, she wanted to know.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“He lives in London,” I said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“London, England? Gosh, that’s far away,” she said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“They’re divorced,” I said. And though divorce was not uncommon in our Washington circles, Mrs. Jones looked shocked. I liked her innocence: troubled thoughts rushed across her face like clouds and were gone just as quickly. She was a clear sky.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What about your mom? What does she do?”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“She works for nuclear disarmament,” I said.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was only after my father left that my mother had begun to worry about nuclear war. The good thing was that she started leaving the house to attend disarmament meetings. She got over her fear of the dark so that she could turn our basement into a fallout shelter. She mapped out scenarios, calculating the reach of the radioactive fallout if the blast hit Kansas City, say, or Washington. She drew ominous red circles in our Rand-McNally to mark the circumference of destruction. At the kitchen table, the hanging lamp created a tunnel of light under which she envisioned doom. She’d press her slide rule across swaths of U.S. territory.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI liked to flip the atlas to the Soviet Union, its borders drawn in a muted red. I couldn’t even fit the top of my pinkie inside Luxembourg, but could press both of my palms onto the Soviet sprawl. The Russians fascinated me. My mother and I watched clips of Brezhnev on the evening news—his chest clotted with medals, his eyebrows bristling under his fur hat—but it was ordinary Russians I was curious about. Moscow, as the capital of the other Superpower, struck me as Washington’s twin. Was there an eight-year-old girl somewhere in Moscow whose sister had also died, whose father had also left?","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303602409701,"sku":"NP9780143125440","price":17.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780143125440.jpg?v=1767744727","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/you-are-one-of-them-isbn-9780143125440","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}