American Fantasy

A Novel

De: Emma Straub

Narrado por: Marin Ireland

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“American Fantasy has everything we need right now: '90s nostalgia, humor, and it is a great escape.” —Jenna Bush Hager on NBC Today Show

"I can hardly remember the last time I read anything that brought me such pure joy.” —Ann Patchett

“American Fantasy is such a fun, delicious, big-hearted book.” —Taylor Jenkins Reid

“Comedy and redemption on the high seas...breezy, tenderhearted.”—New York Times

From New York Times bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow, an irresistible story about what happens when your teenage fantasy comes true after you’re already an adult.

When the American Fantasy cruise ship sets sail for a four-day themed voyage, aboard are all five members of a famous, nineties-era boy band and three thousand screaming women who have worshipped them since childhood.

Feeling slightly out of place amid this crowd is Annie, here on a lark to appease her sister. Yet when the lights come up and the idols of her youth begin to sing, something is unlocked. Call it memory. Call it nostalgia. Call it the chemical reaction of hormones, hope, and sexual reawakening. Between the slushy alcoholic drinks, the familiar music, and the throngs of middle-aged women acting like lovesick teenagers, Annie finally reconnects to a long-submerged part of herself. By the time she meets one of the band members—not just a celebrity but someone in need of a friend—she has accessed a new sense of possibility.

In a smart and incisive book packed with laugh-out-loud reflections on fame, aging, and marriage, Emma Straub delivers a richly textured story that shows us real passion is never truly lost, that what we love makes us who we are, and that deep meaning can sometimes be found in a sea of screaming fans.

NKOTB Cruise Parody

Saw this book in People Magazine and immediately downloaded on Audible. Having been a passenger on 7 of 12 New Kids on the Block cruises, I was excited about the “comparison” of the real thing of a Boy Band obsession, experience, life…I smiled the entire time while listening; reliving my own memories and experiences. It was also bittersweet, as rumor has it that there will be no more NKOTB Cruises.

Great story read well

Story exceeded my expectations and narrator was just right. This is the second Emma Straub book I’ve read and now I’ll probably read more.

I'm sad it's over already

Loved this book. I was living vicariously through Annie for the entire trip! Would love a part 2!

Delightfully thoughtful!

Fun, even if you'd never listened to a boy band. I feel I now know what a cruise like that would be like. I especially liked the perspective of staff.

Look into the Blockheads

Not spicy enough. Other than that it was more profound and interesting than I expected it to be.