"This winter's cathartic read: a story that feels familiar yet wholly original, like every heartbreak ever."-Marie Claire
ONE OF NYLON, REFINERY29's AND THE EVENING STANDARD'S MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2017
*A stunning debut novel set in New York City that explores a relationship from two sides. What happens when life gets in the way?*
This is a story about falling in love, and of a relationship that's falling apart.
It's the story of a young couple, graduating from Yale and moving to New York in search of the shared future they'd always dreamed about. Of crisp morning strolls through Central Park, taxi horns and the bustle of tourists, salty hot pretzels and the glitter of Broadway and long summer days that stretch like shadows across the sidewalk.
It's a story of high expectations and missed opportunities, of growing up, taking chances and making terrible mistakes.
This is Evan and Julia's story.
This is a love story.
But nobody said it ends happily.
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Praise for The Futures
'Tender and wise ... Pitoniak's voice is stylish and authentic, and perfect for exploring this rich territory: youth and love and New York City' Karen Thompson Walker, author of The Age of Miracles
'An unflinchingly honest tale of two young people trying to navigate expectations and learning to live with their own mistakes. A compelling and memorable debut' J. Courtney Sullivan, author of The Engagements
'The Futures reminded me of Brightness Falls, Jay McInerney's great novel of New York, for Pitoniak, like McInerney, possesses an instinctual understanding of the mechanisms that make the city run and a knack for embracing her characters' thornier sides. Utterly enjoyable' Joanna Rakoff, author of My Salinger Year
'The Futures is a love story and so much more. It captures the heartaches and exhilarations of early adulthood with a keen eye, a big heart, superb writing and an artfully intricate plot. This is a book for people of all ages looking for a place in the world, and Anna Pitoniak is a young novelist with some serious writing chops' Meg Mitchell Moore, author of The Admissions
'Anna Pitoniak's debut novel, The Futures, is the perfect cocktail of smart prose, heart-warming characters, and unmatched savvy about modern city life. Like The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P. or A Fortunate Age this book will amaze and elate you.' Kristopher Jansma, author of Why We Came To the City and The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards
'Mesmerizing . . . The novel's alternating structure is hypnotic. Pitoniak is an absolute ventriloquist, completely inhabiting the voices of the two protagonists their ambitions, anxieties, pettiness, sadness, and great love for one another. I couldn't put it down' Sunil Yapa, author of Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist
'Pitoniak's assured debut explores the cost of realizing - and misinterpreting - one's dreams . . . Navigating terrain - love and youth, college and city life - that's often oversimplified, Pitoniak eschews cliche for nuanced characterization and sharply observed detail. Evan and Julia ring true as 20-somethings, but Pitoniak's novel also speaks to anyone who has searched among possible futures for the way back to what Julia calls 'the person I had been all along'
Publishers Weekly
'Pitoniak's well-plotted, character-driven, interior-focused novel captures the knowable angst of the unknowable possibilities of modern young adulthood' Booklist
'Pitoniak expertly captures both the excitement and the oppressive darkness of being young and at sea in New York City, the unsettingly thin line between freedom and free fall . . . [The novel is] deeply empathetic - and always engaging. A bittersweet coming-of-age drama and a portrait of an era' Kirkus
Only then did I see it clearly: everyone was figuring it out. Everyone except me. I had no passion, no plan, nothing that made me stand out from the crowd. I had absolutely no idea what kind of job I was supposed to get.
— About the hopes, fears, and uncertainties in the transition to adulthood. It was an okay read, though a bit on the privileged side.
