The Red Car: A Novel

Named one of the Best Books of the Year by Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and Library Journal

“Sharp and fiery.... There is, now, a literary term for a book you can’t stop reading.... It is The Red Car.” —New York Times Book Review

In her “dry, delightful fairy tale for grown-ups” (People), celebrated novelist Marcy Dermansky offers a biting exploration of a woman’s search for self-realization and models of a life well lived. When Leah’s former boss and mentor, Judy, dies in an accident and leaves Leah her most prized possession—a flashy red sports car—the shock forces Leah to reevaluate her whole life. Leah is living in Queens with a husband she doesn’t love and a list of unfulfilled ambitions. Returning to San Francisco to claim the mysteriously powerful car, she revisits past lives and loves in several sprawling days colored by sex and sorrow.

Dermansky evokes an edgy, capricious, and beautifully haunting heroine—one whose search for realization is as wonderfully unpredictable and hypnotic as the twists and turns of the Pacific Coast Highway. Tautly wound, transgressive, and mordantly funny, The Red Car is an incisive exploration of one woman’s unusual route to self-discovery.