Julia Langbein says that the inspiration for her new novel, Dear Monica Lewinsky, came to her during a visit to the house where she grew up: “I had to go clear out my old childhood bedroom, and I found a diary from 1998 in which I had been disparaging of Monica Lewinsky in a way that was just very casual and normal for people at that time…It was this moment of compunction — we all recognize we had it wrong — but the writer in me was like, You’re picking up on some idea of Monica Lewinsky as a kind of saint whose public life completely fits with the stories of the early martyrs.”
― Julia Langbein, Interview, Grub Street
What booksellers are saying about Dear Monica Lewinsky
- Langbein delivers a near-flawlessly crafted novel that find new ways to explore and expand the boundaries of our cultural discourse around power and consent with depth, humor and well-earned emotional payoff.
― Matt, A Cappella Books, Atlanta, Georgia | BUY
- I devoured this wild, totally bonkers and completely beautiful coming-of-age-in-retrospect with tears, laughter, and a lot of nervous cringing. Langbein gets right at the heart of what it means to be a woman in the world
― Amanda, Tombolo Books, St. Petersburg, Florida | BUY
- Featuring an all-knowing heavenly Monica Lewinsky, breathtaking moments of irony and beauty, and an array of saintly women, this novel—evocative and timely—enchanted me beyond words.
― Joshua Lambie, The Underground Bookshop, Carrollton, Georgia | BUY
- Langbein’s Dear Monica Lewinsky gave me everything I needed: late-90s nostalgia (tempered by #MeToo hindsight), a complex coming-of-age tale, plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, and a wise, irreverent Patron Saint for those of us who had an audience for our fall from grace and prayed for guidance on the way back up.
― Audrey Smith, Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, North Carolina | BUY
About Julia Langbein
Julia Langbein holds a doctorate in art history and is the author of the novel American Mermaid as well as a nonfiction book about comic art criticism. She has written about food, art, and travel for Bon Appétit, Gourmet, Eater, Salon, Frieze, and other publications, and received a 2024 James Beard Foundation Journalism Award. A native of Chicago, she lives outside of Paris with her family.
