The Innocents

Francesca Segal

Hyperion, Jun 5, 2012 - Fiction - 288 pages

*** Winner of the 2012 Costa First Novel Award *** "It is impossible to resist this novel's wit, grace, and charm."
--Lauren Groff, author of The Monsters of Templeton and Arcadia

A smart and slyly funny tale of love, temptation, confusion, and commitment; a triumphant and beautifully executed recasting of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence.

Newly engaged and unthinkingly self-satisfied, twenty-eight-year-old Adam Newman is the prize catch of Temple Fortune, a small, tight-knit Jewish suburb of London. He has been dating Rachel Gilbert since they were both sixteen and now, to the relief and happiness of the entire Gilbert family, they are finally to marry. To Adam, Rachel embodies the highest values of Temple Fortune; she is innocent, conventional, and entirely secure in her community--a place in which everyone still knows the whereabouts of their nursery school classmates. Marrying Rachel will cement Adam's role in a warm, inclusive family he loves.

But as the vast machinery of the wedding gathers momentum, Adam feels the first faint touches of claustrophobia, and when Rachel's younger cousin Ellie Schneider moves home from New York, she unsettles Adam more than he'd care to admit. Ellie--beautiful, vulnerable, and fiercely independent--offers a liberation that he hadn't known existed: a freedom from the loving interference and frustrating parochialism of North West London. Adam finds himself questioning everything, suddenly torn between security and exhilaration, tradition and independence. What might he be missing by staying close to home?

Francesca Segal was born in London and studied at Oxford and Harvard University before becoming a journalist and critic. Her work has appeared in Granta, The Guardian, and The Observer, among other publications. For three years she wrote the Debut Fiction Column in The Observer and has been a features writer at Tatler. She divides her time between London and New York.

"With understated wit, empathy and a cinematic eye of detail, Segal brings alive a host of characters so robust that you can easily imagine them onscreen... A winning debut novel."
--People

"Inspired by The Age of Innocence, Segal's book is warmer, funnier, and paints a more dynamic and human portrait of a functional community that is a wonderful juxtaposition to Wharton's cold social strata."
--Publishers Weekly, starred review

"A crafty homage... [Segal] writes with engaging warmth."
--Entertainment Weekly, Grade: B+

"Readers who enjoy fast-paced, gently satirical literary novels, fans of Allegra Goodman, and book group participants will find a Shabbat dinner's worth of noshing in this accomplished debut novel."
--Library Journal

"An emotionally and intellectually astute debut."
--Kirkus

"[A] delightful first novel... wise, witty and observant."
--The London Times

"Segal writes with an understated elegance."
--The Observer (UK)

"The Innocents is written with wisdom and deliciously subtle wit... This is a wonderfully readable novel: elegant, accomplished, and romantic."
--Andre Aciman, author of Out of Egypt, Call Me by Your Name, and Alibis

"A moving, funny, richly drawn story... Full of real pleasures and unexpected wisdom, this book sweeps you along."
--Esther Freud, author of Love Falls and Lucky Break

What people are saying

Review: The Innocents

User Review  - Monica - Goodreads

I have to say that this book is very well written and you easily become absorbed in the story and the characters. People say that Francesca Segal copied the storyline from the Age of Innocence, but in ...

Review: The Innocents

User Review  - Khaya - Goodreads

I never read The Age of Innocence, so I can't judge this as a retelling. But as a stand-alone book, it really didn't work for me. The basic story is that Adam, who has dated Rachel for 12 years and is ...

About the author

Francesca Segal was born in London in 1980. The daughter of a writer and an editor, she studied at Oxford and Harvard University before becoming a journalist and critic. Her work has appeared in Granta, The Guardian, The Observer, The Daily Telegraph, FT Magazine, and The JC, amongst others. For three years she wrote the Debut Fiction Column in The Observer and has been a features writer at Tatler. She divides her time between London and New York.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Innocents
• Author: Francesca Segal
• Publisher: Hyperion, 2012
• ISBN: 1401341810, 9781401341817
• Length: 288 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Family Life; Fiction / General; Fiction / Jewish