Friends and Strangers

　　兩個女人，來自社會階級的兩個極端，如何譜出一段複雜而深刻的友誼

　　Elisabeth帶著剛出生不久的嬰兒，隨著先生來到了距離紐約布魯克林高級社區250哩遠的小鎮，「你們知道的，不是那種很有風情的小鎮。」Elisabeth搬走前這樣對所有的朋友說著。在新的住所，她只能每天自己一個人待在家照顧小孩，這讓原本身為記者和作家的她感到不安和迷惘。Elisabeth開始瘋狂地刷起布魯克林媽媽之友們的臉書群組、網紅姊妹的Instagram貼文，瘋狂傳訊息給搬到小鎮後就再也沒見面的閨蜜們。她始終無法「強迫」自己融入小鎮的媽媽圈中，好不容易才交上了一個好友，就是聘來的保姆－Sam。

　　Sam是社區女子大學的學生，有別於Elisabeth上流富豪的出身，她從小成長在一個溫暖的中產階級大家族中。很清楚知道自己未來的夢想，努力地半工半讀，致力於良好的表現以奪得獎學金。但糾纏不清的戀愛關係，以及還不清的學貸，似乎都讓Sam對於未來感到不安。

　　兩個成長於不同背景的人，卻意外地成了好友，但這「朋友」究竟是真心抑或只是公事公辦的僱主跟員工關係？將隨著Elisabeth公公的來訪，問題的答案也將水落石出。

　　(文／博客來編譯)

From the best-selling author of Maine and Saints for All Occasions (named one of the Washington Post's Ten Best Books of the Year and a New York Times Critics' Pick) comes an insightful, hilarious, and compulsively readable novel about a complicated friendship between two women who are at two very different stages in life.

Elisabeth, an accomplished journalist and new mother, is struggling to adjust to life in a small town after nearly twenty years in New York City. Alone in the house with her infant son all day (and awake with him much of the night), she feels uneasy, adrift. She neglects her work, losing untold hours to her Brooklyn moms' Facebook group, her "influencer" sister's Instagram feed, and text messages with the best friend she never sees anymore. Enter Sam, a senior at the local women's college, whom Elisabeth hires to babysit. Sam is struggling to decide between the path she's always planned on and a romantic entanglement that threatens her ambition. She's worried about student loan debt and what the future holds. In short order, they grow close and become unlikely confidantes. But when Sam finds an unlikely kindred spirit in Elisabeth's father-in-law, the true differences between the women's lives become starkly revealed and a betrayal has devastating consequences.

A masterful exploration of motherhood, power dynamics, and privilege in its many forms, Friends and Strangers reveals how a single year can shape the course of a life.

J. Courtney Sullivan is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Commencement, Maine, The Engagements, and Saints For All Occasions. Her work has been translated into 17 languages. Sullivan’s writing has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, New York magazine, Elle, Glamour, Allure, Real Simple, and O: The Oprah Magazine, among many others. She lives in Brooklyn, New York with her husband and two children.