Heavy Cream

Sixteen year-old Geraldine learns to navigate New York’s high society after her mother abandons her and must contend with the influence of three women each seeking to form her in their image.

Growing up on the road, it has always been the two of them, locked in dysfunction. Homeschooled, Gerry hasn’t learned much math. Instead, her mother has taught her how to spend the day at a motel’s swimming pool without being a guest or how to dodge paying extra for the chicken on a Caesar salad.

When her mother ditches her, Gerry finds herself in the care of three very different women, who each try to remake her. First, there is her mother’s old college friend Bonnie, who lives in a world of country clubs, The Bachelor binges, and whipped mochas. Then there is Nell, her mother’s estranged sister and a successful artist who pushes Gerry to be ambitious. And finally Finley, an old-money socialite who ushers Gerry into a rarefied world of Manhattan privilege.

A coming-of-age novel that explores unconventional forms of motherhood and caretaking, Sarah Blakley-Cartwright’s new novel is both a charming comedy of manners and a deeply probing look at the complexities of love, mental illness, and one young woman’s eccentric path to selfhood.