One Fifth Avenue

Description:
One Fifth Avenue, the Art Deco beauty towering over Manhattan's hippest neighbourhood, is a one-of-a-kind address, the sort of building you have to earn your way into - one way or another. For the women in Candace Bushnell's stellar new novel, One Fifth Avenue is at the heart of the lives they've carefully established, or hope to establish. There is Schiffer Diamond, a forty-something actress busily proving that women of style are truly ageless. There is spoiled, self-assured Lola, who is determined to launch herself into society and the arms of the right man by clawing a way into the building. Annalisa is the wife of a hedge fund manager and reluctant socialite, while bitter Mindy is married to an under-published writer and has been the family breadwinner for too long. And then there is Enid, the glamorous grande dame and gossip columnist, who has lived at One Fifth Avenue for decades, and sees everything there is to see from her penthouse view ...

Review:
** 'Bushnell's unparalleled ability to capture type borders in uncanny; the perceptiveness of David Attenborough studying a rare bird... Bushnell is clearly a master observer: no details evades, from the trapping of her protagonists' world to their hopes and dreams' Sarah Maslin Nir, THE TIMES ** 'Bushnell writes like a dream' Henry Sutton, Book of the Week, DAILY MIRROR ** 'It's a shining example of accurately observed social commentary...she has matured as a writer, making it her mission to expose the warped materialism that life in the fast lane breeds, turning decent people into twisted, label-obsessed caricatures. It's all served up with a dose of devilishly dark humour, which makes us blissfully unaware we're being preached to. A hugely entertaining yarn with fascinating, and at times repellent, characters' Serena Kutchinsky, TIME OUT ** 'Full of her usual keen-eyed observations of New York neuroses' VOGUE UK ** 'As sparkling as this season's must-have cocktail ring ...Grippingly good' FOUR STARS, Eithne Farry, MARIE CLAIRE ** 'Bushnell's able to draw a large cast so vividly and imbue them with plenty of zing ... the complex, interweaving plot zips along nicely' Sharon Louger, Fiction of the Week, METRO ** 'Perfect girly fodder. 4 Stars' HEAT ** 'No one captures New York quite like Candace Bushnell' LOOK ** 'Every so often a writer comes along who is so in tune with the times in which they are living that their creation becomes an emblem of their era ... Bushnell has does it again. One Fifth Avenue manages to be slap-bang on the nose about current preoccupations' SUNDAY EXPRESS ** 'Hooray - here's some fun, girls! ... a dollop of unashamed indulgence ...flavour-filled, instantly gratifying and spiked with piquancy ... Bushnell is always of her time, and reading this book is like watching the Red Sea close up with Moses safely across. It is a swansong for the age of avarice as it passes. Have a bit - it's delicious' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY ** 'Witty writing and a gripping story' WOMAN

Author Biography:
Candace Bushnell is the creator of SEX AND THE CITY and has been described by the EVENING STANDARD as a 'genius'. The OBSERVER compared her to Nancy Mitford and the SUNDAY TELEGRAPH to 'Jane Austen with a Martini'.