American Fantasy

Emma Straub author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd

Publishing:14th May '26

£18.99

This title is due to be published on 14th May, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

American Fantasy cover

Annie is:

  • On a cruise with her one-time favourite boyband and a thousand female super-fans
  • Still reeling from her divorce
  • Being replaced at work by her intern


Keith is:

  • Fifty years old and in a band that performs dance routines with hip thrusts
  • Suffering from sea sickness
  • Certain his wife doesn’t love him anymore


When a meet-and-greet throws them together, Annie develops a crush on Keith, and Keith starts to wonder if life might have a few surprises in store for him.

But are Keith and Annie just living a fantasy? And what happens when they get back to shore?

American Fantasy is such a fun, delicious, big-hearted book. -- Taylor Jenkins Reid
I can hardly remember the last time I read anything that brought me such pure joy. I was up too late reading, then got up too early to go back to reading. All I wanted was American Fantasy. It brims with truth and humanity and insight, and it made me snort like a pig. I loved it. I think the entire country will love it. -- Ann Patchett
Wow, who knew that what my life was missing was a book about boats and boybands?! This is a treasure chest of a story, filled with Straub’s signature warmth, humour, compassion and insight. I rooted for these characters and worried about them, and by the end, much like the Talkers, I was completely swept away by my love for them. An unmitigated pleasure from start to finish. I did not want to return to dry land! -- Coco Mellors
So much fun but with such depth to the characters. Looking at midlife through Annie’s lens is a buoying experience. Even though it's super accurate about the reckonings of mid-life, the tone is blithe and hopeful, and that is so NEEDED right now. I can’t TELL you the enjoyment it gave me. -- Marian Keyes
Peak intelligence and criminally readable -- Maria Semple
A delicious novel about being a grown-up girl who once loved something very, very much. You don't have to be a fan of something to love American Fantasy, but if you've ever truly devoted yourself to a boy band or a TV show or even a series of books, you will feel so understood by this novel. -- Rainbow Rowell
American Fantasy is written by Emma Straub, so obviously it is poignant, nuanced and unexpectedly hilarious. I didn’t know how badly I needed to be fully transported to a boy band cruise ship. Cheaper than therapy, and a lot more fun! -- Holly Brickley
Emma Straub is the most empathetic and open-hearted writer in literature. It is pure joy to see her turn to the emotionally complicated territory of teenage nostalgia and what it means to reconnect with the feelings of youth from the realities of middle age. In American Fantasy Straub uncovers the beauty and regret of reconciling who we once were with who we are now. -- Kevin Wilson
Straub writes with such verve and sympathetic understanding of her characters . . . Reading this novel has all the pleasures of reading one of Anne Tyler's compelling family portraits * New York Times *
Straub writes beautifully and amusingly . . . hard to beat for sheer charm and gentle wit * Daily Mail *

ISBN: 9780241453483

Dimensions: 240mm x 156mm x 40mm

Weight: 750g

336 pages