The author of over twenty books, Julianna has published eight literary novels for adults under her own name, including two New York Times Notable Books of the Year, an ALA Alex Award Winner, a Kirkus Best Book of the Year, and an Indie Next Pick. Here’s a glimpse of each of these titles.
I’d Really Prefer Not To Be Here With You, Blackstone Publishing.
Julianna’s debut short story collection. I’D REALLY PREFER NOT TO BE HERE WITH YOU, now has a cover! The stories in this collection have sold to Netflix, Paramount, Amblin, MGM, and others.
Here is a brilliant blurb from international bestselling novelist, author of THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU and incredible screenwriter Jonathan Tropper, “Casually fantastical, beautifully surreal, and packing an unexpected emotional punch, the stories in ‘I’d Really Prefer Not To Be Here With You’ are clever and subversive and proof that, in the right hands, big ideas can come in small, perfect packages.”
Actress and producer Jessica Biel said of the collection, “Julianna Baggott’s words… allow us to see the ordinary as something truly extraordinary.”
The Wick, Underland Press.
“…utterly unlike anything I’ve ever read, but also, somehow, the lovechild of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go and Carol Emshwiller’s The Mount.” – Locus Magazine
“Baggott brings a poetic ethos to this mesmerizing sci-fi novella. [Her] lyrical, shared-mind narration nimbly handles the worldbuilding, inviting readers into an enticingly complex world … the story… will leave readers eager to return to its vast and vivid universe.” – Publisher’s Weekly
“A unique blend of science fiction and poetry about an equally unique friendship between two AIs. It will blow your mind.” – Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam, author of Glorious Fiends and Where You Linger
Harriet Wolf’s Seventh Book of Wonders, Little Brown.
A Top 100 New York Times Notable Book of the Year
A New York Times Book Review’s Editor’s Choice
“Many things are hidden in Julianna Baggott’s intricate, tenderhearted novel about a writer, her children and a legacy of loss… The narrative Baggott has built might be described as a post-and-beam structure, a framework of sturdy supports locked into place with no nails, just fine, firm dovetail joints… Eleanor and her daughters will all find a new ending to their story, and remind Baggott’s readers of a gorgeous truth: “The world is astonishing, mainly because of its persistence.” –The New York Times Book Review Click here to read the full review.
“9 Novels You Shouldn’t Miss Before Summer’s Over,” alongside Alice Hoffman and Adam Johnson – Kirkus, August 2015
“In this evocative book, those secrets hide mystery after mystery, like a set of Russian nesting dolls… No spoilers, but we’ll say this: Baggott knows how and when to reveal answers for the ultimate emotional punch.” – Entertainment Weekly
“You have no choice but to agree with me. Baggott … is genius material. [Wonders] will appeal as much to grown-up readers of A Series of Unfortunate Events as it will to those who adore… Zelda Fitzgerald lore, or those moments in Alice McDermott novels when the zeitgeist of a family is revealed by a single exposed seam.” – National Book Award Finalist, Beth Kephart, The New York Journal of Books
“… Baggott’s latest novel refuses to be confined to only one genre. Harriet Wolf’s Seventh Book of Wonders is a captivating multigenerational family saga, a love story and a mystery—tinged with a bit of fantasy… Baggott’s mesmerizing tale of the resilient ties of motherhood and the bonds between sisters will resonate with a wide variety of readers.” – Bookpage
“…mesmerizing…” —Entertainment Weekly, 10 Big Fat Beach Reads, Summer 2015
“The hunt for lit-genius Wolf’s final book is so on.” —Cosmopolitan magazine
“There are certain books you read with a pen, so staggeringly beautiful are the passages. Read ‘Harriet Wolf’s Seventh Book of Wonders,’ by Julianna Baggott with two pens — one may run out of ink… I loved this book.” – South Coast Today
“Julianna Baggott’s devoted readers have long known that she is a genius who can do whatever she wants. But withHarriet Wolf’s Seventh Book of Wonders she has somehow outdone herself. This novel, about a woman who is stuck telling and living a family story that someone else has written and whose ending has been (maybe) lost forever, reminds me of the best work by the great Steven Millhauser: brainy, self-aware, tender, full of loss, but also full of grace and wonder. This is Julianna Baggott’s best book, which is one way of saying it’s one of the best books you’ll read this year, or any other.” —Brock Clarke, author of An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England and The Happiest People in the World.
“Julianna Baggott’s very winning Harriet Wolf’s Seventh Book of Wonders is only incidentally about a lost masterpiece, a marriage bound by string, and a lunatic literary family. Dig deeper and it’s about mothers and daughters and the conflicts and compromises that amount to love.”—Joshua Ferris, Man Booker Prize finalist for To Rise Again at a Decent Hour
“An utterly original tale told in four distinct voices, Harriet Wolf’s Seventh Book of Wonders is an exhilarating mélange of heartrending loss, hilarity, and enchantment. Julianna Baggott has indeed created a book of wonders.”—Mira Bartok, author of National Book Critics Circle Award winner and New York Times bestseller The Memory Palace
“‘All stories worth telling are love stories,’ a character says Harriet Wolf’s Seventh Book of Wonders. This novel about a famous writer’s lost manuscript, the complex legacy of family secrets, and—yes—a love story that unfolds across generations is inventive, playful, and deeply affecting.” —Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train
“Dazzling and ambitious, Baggott’s gorgeously written new novel explores the ‘miracles born out of desperation’ of three generations of women, all set against an astounding sweep of 20th Century history. A mesmerizing tale of a star-crossed love, and of the dark secrets of a fracturing family, the book is also a profound meditation about stories: how they create and trap us, how they protect us, and how, even amidst great tragedy, they can sometimes make us bloom. So full of wonders, it leaves you haunted, amazed, and like every great read, irrevocably changed.” —Caroline Leavitt, New York Times Bestselling author of Is This Tomorrow and Pictures of You
“Julianna Baggott’s richly imagined new novel is filled with laughter and heartbreak, and–most wonderfully–the bright, pained release of stories, which somehow flutter from these pages like living birds.” —Elizabeth Graver, bestselling author of The End of the Point.
“Author of the ‘Pure’ trilogy, a bleak and gorgeously rendered dystopian tale, Baggott here does something arrestingly different. Reclusive author Harriet Wolf is long dead, but rumors of a final, revelatory book left unpublished are still very much alive. Harriet; her fiercely protective daughter, Eleanor; and Eleanor’s grown daughters, runaway rebel Ruth, and Tilton, now as reclusive as Harriet, share a narrative that delivers a powerful sense of the meaning of motherhood and the bonds between sisters.” —Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal
“Moments of heartbreak balance moments of hilarity in Baggott’s ambitious portrait of a family created from equal parts secrecy and love.” —Kirkus
PURE, FUSE & BURN, Grand Central Publishing, Hachette
A post-apocalyptic, dystopian thriller and love story, which includes the three books Pure, Fuse, and Burn, which was released in February 2014.
A New York Times Notable Book.
An American Library Association Alex Award Winner
Film Rights acquired by Fox2000, Karen Rosenfelt producing.
A New York Times Editor’s Pick.
A Booklist Editors’ Choice list of the Best Adult Books for a Young Adult, 2012.
A Best Book of 2012 list selection, Suspense Magazine.
Starred Review, Publishers Weekly.
Library Journal break-out novel for February 2012.
Library Journal’s 25 Top Fiction Titles from January through April 2012.
Library Journal, starred review of the audiobook.
A People magazine pick for “Still Hungry?” suggested reading for those who loved The Hunger Games on a list of 5 books, including Orson Scott Card and Philip Pullman.
Indie Next Pick: Great Reads
Starbucks Bookish Digital Book Club Pick
An Entertainment Weekly pick for “Find Me a Twilight.”
CBSNEWS.com mention in Best Bets
A Spring Break Reading pick for The Book Reporter.com’s 20SomethingReads
“Baggott’s postapocalyptic world is realized to stunning cinematic effect… the ‘Mad Max’ landscape creating the backdrop for a succession of violent confrontations in which the stakes are satisfyingly high. What lifts Pure from the glut of blood-spattered young adult fiction is not the story Baggott tells but the exquisite precision of her prose.”—The New York Times Book Review
“… Baggott has done the seemingly impossible and created an original vision of disaster … this novel sizzles with invention …” —The Sunday Times (London)
“Baggott’s highly anticipated postapocalyptic horror novel … is a fascinating mix of stark, oppressive authoritarianism and grotesque anarchy. Baggott mixes brutality, occasional wry humor, and strong dialogue into an exemplar of the subgenre. ” —Publisher’s Weekly, starred review
“It’s a concept which jars at first, but then becomes a constant and poignant reminder of a world irretrievably lost….Baggott tells what might have been an overly grim tale with crystalline precision…” —The Guardian (UK)
“A great gorgeous whirlwind of a novel, boundless in its imagination. You will be swept away.” —Justin Cronin, New York Times bestselling author of The Passage
“Pure is not just the most extraordinary coming-of-age novel I’ve ever read, it is also a beautiful and savage metaphorical assessment of how all of us live in this present age. This is an important book by one of our finest writers.” —Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize winner
“…Pure is a dark adventure that is both startling and addictive at once. Pressia Belze is one part manga heroine and one part post-apocalyptic Alice, stranded in a surreal Wonderland where everyone and everything resonates with what has been lost. Breathtaking and frightening. I couldn’t stop reading Pure.” —Danielle Trussoni, New York Times bestselling author of Angelology
“A boiling and roiling glorious mosh-pit of a book, full of wonderful weirdness, tenderness, and wild suspense. If Katniss could jump out of her own book and pick a great friend, I think she’d find and excellent candidate in Pressia.” —Aimee Bender, bestselling author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
“Baggott delves fearlessly into a grotesque and fascinating future populated by strangely endearing victims (and perpetrators) of a wholly unique apocalypse. And trust me, Pure packs one hell of an apocalypse.” —Daniel H. Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Robopocalypse
“A post-apocalyptic thrill ride, filled with wildly inventive characters … Bursting with imagination and epic adventure.” —Steven Schneider, producer of the Paranormal Activity Franchise
“Pure is testament to the might and beauty of Grimm-dark imagination…. A sublime novel by one of our most important storytellers.” —William Giraldi, author of Busy Monsters
“Julianna Baggott has created a mesmerizing, nightmarish apocalyptic world, populated by denizens who suffer out bleak existence bearing the literal marks of what was closest to them in their previous life…. Sure to haunt the imagination of readers for a long, long time.” —Matt Bondurant, author of The Wettest County in the World and The Night Swimmer
“Original and masterfully written … startling, harrowing, and touching.” —Jeff VanderMeer, World Fantasy Award winner and bestselling author of Southern Reach Trilogy, City of Saints and Madmen
“Baggott’s imagery is matchless in this freakish and compelling tale of love and revolution…. Verdict: A sure hit for fans of Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games…. ” —Library Journal, starred review of the audiobook
“Pure makes The Hunger Games look like a garden party. ” —Self.com
Which Brings Me To You: A Novel in Confessions
The novel Which Brings Me to You, co-written with Steve Almond, is with BCDF with a script adapted by Keith Bunin, Lucy Hale attached to star, and Peter Hutchings attached to direct.
A Best Book of 2006 – Kirkus Reviews
Elle Magazine Online Book Club Pick.
Boston Magazine Book Club.
Lexington Herald Leader Book Pick.
Starred Review, Kirkus Reviews.
Starred Review, Library Journal.
“A … charming double take on love and loss … there’s cumulative power in this probing of heartaches.” – People Magazine
“… page-turning reading.” NPR, Here and Now, Robin Young
“… terrifically engaging.” – Entertainment Weekly
“Sexy, funny, and touching . . . Keen insights into sex, love, and coming to terms with one’s own unruly imperfections. A winner.” — Kirkus, starred review
“The writing is piercing, funny, and emotional. Baggott … and Almond’s … collaboration makes for a delightful and robust work that readers will not be able to put down as they savor every messy confession.” – Library Journal, starred review
“Sharp humor and insights into the modern psyche … ” – Publishers Weekly
“Coauthored by pop culture darlings Baggott and Almond, this is a surprisingly poignant and meaningful read.” –Booklist
“A clever and touching exploration of love and longing… an intriguing mix of funny, rueful, poignant and erotic.” — The Hartford Courant
“Their two-sided tell-all details the pitfalls of modern love and is sprinkled with death, love, punk bands and nasty run-ins with postal carriers … sure to be the most insightful and intelligently written novel you’ve read in quite some time.” — Bookpage
“… great reading … enormously satisfying.” –MSNBC
The Madam, Simon and Schuster
A novel based on the life of Baggott’s grandmother who was raised in a house of prostitution in the 1920s and 1930s.
Nominated for the National Book Award.
Boston Herald Book Club Selection, October 2003.
“A poet has transformed a piece of history into a luminous and epic piece of literature; it’s as if John Irving and Djuna Barnes had collaborated, each bringing to the page the fiery best of their various gifts, the dark and lyrical and bizarre and sexual and comical and violent and mysterious and supremely heart-breaking spectacle of wide, wild lives rendered vividly before our eyes.” — Antonya Nelson
“Few writers of the twenty-first century can rival the verve, the energy and the sheer delight in language of Julianna Baggott. Profoundly different from anything she has done before, The Madam is an extraordinary novel which will open a whole new phase of what already looks like a brilliant career.” – Madison Smartt Bell
“Her prose is lit with the fire of passion; it is haunting, luminescent and irresistible. The Madam is a tour de force of a novel, a compelling crescendo all the way to a tense and surprising end that you’ll never forget.” – Christine Wiltz, author of The Last Madam: A Life in the New Orleans Underworld
“Beautifully rendered, this story is as brave and unique and full of surprises as the madam portrayed within it.” –Elizabeth Strout, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
“…haunting … ” The Washington Post Book World
“Think of Angela’s Ashes…crossed with Cold Mountain…” – Star News
“Baggott’s insights into the selling of sex and women’s depthless capacity for improvisation in the fight to survive and to defend their loved ones are galvanizing in their intensity and drama, and her cathartic and commanding novel is a provocative paean to unconventionality, unexpected alliances, courage, and autonomy.” – Booklist
The Miss America Family, Simon and Schuster
A novel about the dissolution of the perfect American family.
Boston Globe’s Bestseller
“Julianna Baggott enjoys living on the knife edge between hilarity and heartbreak and that makes her a writer after my own heart.” — Richard Russo, winner of the Pulitzer Prize
“With her first two novels, Julianna Baggott has achieved a premier place among American writers.” – Fred Chappell
“[C]ombines the indigenous dysfunction of Phillip Roth’s American Pastoral with the uninhibited disclosure of Russell Banks’s Rule of the Bone.” – Intelligencer Journal
“An accomplished and charmingly messy tale of love and redemption.” – Kirkus Reviews
“This is a stunningly written novel, lyrical and undeniable and relentlessly insightful about the love hiding within the oddities of family life … Smart, witty, and authentically touching, this is a story to be thankful for.” – Tom Coyne, author of A Gentleman’s Game
Girl Talk, Simon and Schuster
A novel that focuses on the strong and complicated ties between mothers and daughters.
National Bestseller
“Baggott’s debut novel is a touching coming-of-age story ….[a] multi-layered, psychological tale… Appealingly quirky characters will charm readers.” — Publishers Weekly
“… a wise look at mother-daughter legacies.” – Library Journal
“… smart, quirky chronicle of mother daughter bonding and binding.” – Glamour
“For Baggott, cosmic irony is always in the details, the absurd gap between self-knowledge and behavioral excess … [Her] brand of witty psychological observation is dark and corrosive… [she] has the knack for finding the oxymoronic in any situation.” – New York Times Book Review
“I couldn’t put this book down. Its hilarious, relentless truths are well-served by its author’s tough lyricism. Baggott trains a stern and tender eye onto our cultural markers, using them to signpost her lively trek towards the revelations of love– lost, re-discovered, and, most satisfying of all, unconditional.” – Carol Dawson
“Girl Talk is a wonderful story. I was hooked with the very first sentence. The subtle twists and turns are remarkable and the characters vivid and memorable. This is the work of a very talented writer. It was a pleasure to read.” – Jill McCorkle
“Filled with the kind of eccentric characters found in Vonnegut or Pynchon.” – Shout Magazine