Lucky Dogs

A Novel

By: Helen Schulman

Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Carlotta Brentan

Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

AN OPRAH DAILY BEST NOVEL OF THE YEAR • The paths of two women on opposite ends of a high-profile sexual abuse scandal set them on a devastating collision course.

"Part thriller, part Hollywood satire, Lucky Dogs is a brash, sometimes heartbreaking saga in which trauma and self-preservation converge across decades and continents. This is Helen Schulman's best novel yet."—Jennifer Egan, best-selling author of A Visit from the Goon Squad and The Candy House

On a sultry summer night in Paris, two women meet in line at an ice cream kiosk on the Ile de la Cité. One is tall, fair, striking, with an indeterminate accent. The other, a troubled American TV star, is hiding her beauty and identity under a shapeless sweatshirt, wearing sunglasses even in the darkness. When leering male tourists hassle the pair, the blonde pulls out a knife and a sisterhood is born. Both women have been victims of male violence, and both are warriors—one trained and calculating, one instinctually ferocious. They each think they know who they are dealing with. But both are very, very wrong.

In a story that unfolds with unexpected humor and the pace of a thriller, acclaimed novelist Helen Schulman lays bare what happens to women—no matter how fortunate they may appear to be on the surface—whose lives have been warped by brutality and misogyny. The issues are universal, but the core of the story is intimate: a passionate exploration of love, betrayal, and survival. Lucky Dogs asks and answers a shattering question: How could one woman so utterly betray another?

©2023 Helen Schulman (P)2023 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Part thriller, part Hollywood satire, Lucky Dogs is a brash, sometimes heartbreaking saga in which trauma and self-preservation converge across decades and continents. This is Helen Schulman’s best novel yet.” (Jennifer Egan, author of The Candy House)

"Crackling with wit and daring insight, Lucky Dogs is a sharp-toothed exploration of trauma—the way it rewrites the soul, and its catastrophic fallout. Schulman understands the choreography of betrayal and risk like no other, skillfully mapping the hidden corners of her characters' hearts.” (Alexandra Kleeman, author of Something New Under the Sun)

"Written with Schulman's characteristic brilliance, subtlety and social insight, Lucky Dogs is an exploration of the complicated and twisting relationship between two women who have been victims of male violence. Unapologetic, searing, lit with humor and wit, it is a novel to be savored." (Jean Kwok, author of Girl in Translation)

Hollywood Stars and Ex Spies for Hire

I love how Schulman draw her readers into the internal world of her characters with such rich detail. Told from the perspective of three women in a global thriller taking us from glitzy but ugly Hollywood to sun baked Paris, vibrant Tel Aviv, and a visceral, moving section in war torn Sarajevo, I felt like I was in good hands as the author challenged me to explore why women betray each other in a still frustratingly unsafe sexuality exploitative world.