Image description: Composite image of two book covers of So Lucky: A Novel, by Nicola Griffith. On the left, the UK edition. On a black background, a burning torch flames in orange and yellow up and across at least half the image. At the top, in between the flames are quotes from the Independent ‘a short, fast-paced whirlwind of a novel’ and BBC Culture‘a sophisticated thriller’. Below is the title, So Lucky in salmon-coloured type, and the author’s name, Nicola Griffith, in white. On the right, the US edition. The background is matte black with the title “So Lucky,” and the author’s name “Nicola Griffith,” in big uppercase type rendered as burning paper. In smaller, brighter letters between title and author is, “A novel,” and, below the writer’s name, “Author of Hild”

Image description: Composite image of two book covers of So Lucky: A Novel, by Nicola Griffith. On the left, the UK edition. On a black background, a burning torch flames in orange and yellow up and across at least half the image. At the top, in between the flames are quotes from the Independent ‘a short, fast-paced whirlwind of a novel’ and BBC Culture‘a sophisticated thriller’. Below is the title, “So Lucky,” in salmon-coloured type, and the author’s name, Nicola Griffith, in white. On the right, the US edition. The background is matte black with the title “So Lucky,” and the author’s name “Nicola Griffith,” in big uppercase type rendered as burning paper. In smaller, brighter letters between title and author is, “A novel,” and, below the writer’s name, “Author of Hild”

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (MCD x FSG Originals), 15 May 2018, 192 pp, US
Handheld Press (Handheld Modern), 22 November 2018, ? pp, UK

“A compact, brutal story of losing power and creating community . . . So Lucky is beautifully written, with a flexible, efficient precision that embodies the protagonist’s voice and character.” ― Amal El-Mohtar, The New York Times Book Review

“A short, fast-paced whirlwind of a novel… Spine tingling and in places downright terrifying.” — Yas Necati, Independent

“With great insight and power, Griffith chronicles one woman’s fight… [and] the plot twists into a sophisticated thriller.” — Jane Ciabattari, BBC Culture

“[D]isorienting, destabilizing, and game-changing. I have never read anything like it.” — Riva Lehrer, award-winning artist, and author of Golem Girl

“Successfully disguised as a page-turning thriller, So Lucky is also a deep meditation on marginalization, vulnerability, and resistance.” — Karen Joy Fowler, author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

“Explosive, tightly plotted…brutal, unsparing… It is full of power and healing, like a forest fire that will burn every single thing to the ground to make way for new growth.” — Joanne Rixon, Seattle Times

“A disconcerting but very necessary book.” — Dana Hansen, Chicago Review of Books

“This swift, luminescent novel casts a shard of light onto the mind of a woman whose life is collapsing.” John Freeman, Boston Globe

“A terse and brutally urgent novel, So Lucky is a reminder that Griffith is one of the most important writers working today.” — Kaite Welsh, DIVA

“Griffith examines the impact that fear of the outside world and internal disintegration can have those who only know themselves through strength.” ― Erin Vanderhoof, Vanity Fair

“So Lucky is a boundless, fearless animal of a novel. It’s structurally ingenious and beautifully written, thrumming with breathtaking sentences that evoke in us a sense of deep empathy.” ― Sharma Shields, Cascadia

“Feminist fiction at its best: powerful storytelling informed by politics with a memorable plot and protagonist. This thriller is a fantastic afternoon read―and once you pick it up, you’ll read all the way to the end.” ― Julie Enszer, Ms. Magazine

“This fierce novel is an unflinching look at how terribly chronically ill and disabled people are treated as well as a declaration of self-love and hope.” ― Casey, Autostraddle

“[C]ompelling reading, a tour de force … It is intense, sad, and dramatic, combining mystery, romance, terror, and hope.” — Steven E. Brown, Co-Founder: Institute on Disability Culture, and author of Movie Stars and Sensuous Scars

“So Lucky fires a gritty, scary, wrathful, sometimes blisteringly funny broadside at the monsters of ableist culture.” — Maria Dahvana Headley, author of The Mere Wife

“So Lucky is somehow both a tense psychological thriller and a subtle character portrait… Nicola Griffith is an essential writer, and here she is at her most personal, political, and perfectly unputdownable.” — Robin Sloan, author of Sourdough

“This angry, funny, cleverly-written piece … ushers in a new wave of disability story.”  — Susan Nussbaum, author of Good Kings, Bad Kings

“Griffith’s lean, taut prose…transforms So Lucky into a story about what we all share: an unpredictable life filled with vulnerability and need for community.” — Kenny Fries, author of In the Province of the Gods

“This book is a body-slam of empowerment, a roar of frustration so sustained and compelling that it cannot be ignored […] a tough, accomplished novel, a book that readers didn’t know they needed.” — Katharine Coldiron, Arts Fuse

“The nuances of disability feel more real than anything I’ve read … It is real and raw. Griffith doesn’t pull any punches just to seem more approachable for a nondisabled reader and even among what little fiction writing about disability by disabled writers there is, this is still a rarity.” — Kim Sauder, Crippled Scholar

“It is a humane story, of bravery and coming to terms with the darkest parts of oneself.” — Martin McClellan, Seattle Review of Books

“The brilliance of So Lucky lies in the seamless merging of genres.” — David Perry, Pacific Stand

“Searing…a fresh and powerful novel and antidote to the sense of victimhood.” ― Booklist

“Refreshing as fuck.” ― Fangirlish

“A tight page-turner on a shelf full of long, weepy struggles to overcome.” ― Evan Allgood, The Millions

“Read So Lucky because there is nothing else like it.” ―  Emma Nichols, BookRiot

“Despite the exhilaration…Griffith’s tale is a verbal switchblade.” ―  Peter Wong, BeyondChron

“A tale about the testing of an individual. Griffith’s stark, dramatic style is perfectly suited to the story of a woman [that’s] as fast-paced and engaging as a thriller.” ―  Jean Roberta, The Gay & Lesbian Review

From the Publisher:

Mara Tagarelli is on top of her world. She’s the head of a multimillion-dollar AIDS foundation, an accomplished martial artist, and happily married. Then, in the space of a week, her wife leaves her, she is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and she loses her job.

Mara has never met a problem she can’t solve—until suddenly she can’t solve any of them. Everything begins to feel like a threat. At first, she thinks it’s just her newfound sense of vulnerability. Then she realizes the threat of violence is real, deadly, and imminent.

But how do you defend yourself when you can’t trust your own body? How do you face down danger when others believe you are helpless, yet you know monsters are coming? This will be a fight unlike any Mara has faced before.

Nicola Griffith’s So Lucky is fiction from the front lines, incandescent and urgent, a narrative juggernaut that rips through sentiment to expose the savagery of the experience of being disabled and chronically ill in America. Yet So Lucky also blazes with the hope and authority of the life that becomes possible when we stop believing lies, find our strengths, and learn new ways to fight.

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  • PNBA Book Awards, shortlist
  • Tournament of Books, shortlist
  • Best LGBT Books of 2018, Autostraddle
  • Book of the Month, DIVA
  • Boston Globe Best Books of 2018