This is the book of the summer in the United States (and it will be in Spain in 2020)
It has not yet arrived in our country ( it will do so in 2020 by the hand of Alba Books ) and we are already witnessing the international media bombardment around the new book by Lauren Mechling , **How Could She She** (Penguin Random House). But, what does it have that does not stop attracting the attention of media such as Vogue, Time or the New York Times? What makes it the book of the summer?
After years of publishing various teen novels, Mechling de realized that her life had changed : she said goodbye in her twenties, lost one of her best friends ("she stopped being one from one day to the next for no reason", she says) and developed a certain obsession with the ways in which women create bonds and are part of life of other women. Four years later, How Could She (something like 'How could she do this?') was terminated.
There is no online portal that has not dedicated a review of it. That's why we wonder, Where does so much media interest come from?
"How Could She is an anti-sentimental comedy about the problem of – and the beauty of – female friendships. . There are men in it, but they stay out of the story, which centers on a friendly triangle of three complicated and flawed women. As we move further and further away from the tendency to use words as "wife" or "girl" in the titles of the books, a voracious appetite for reading stories in which women relate to each other , and also about the ways we are able to help (and even hurt) each other . And, if you allow me, I would also tell you that it is a very funny story, "Mechling tells Traveler.es from her home in New York.
Inspired by the platonic heartbreak , it is her sadness for this feeling that is instilled throughout each of the pages of the book, recounting how three women become best friends in their early twenties, when they work together on a magazine in Toronto.
"A friendship born of circumstance. Even after they stopped working together, they continued to be deeply bonded. The main line of the book takes place a decade later, when they find themselves at a completely different stage of the ladder that is life: Sunny has turned into an it girl, a watercolorist living in New York's West Village; Rachel is a young adult struggling to survive in increasingly expensive Brooklyn; and Geraldine fantasizes about living in New York from her Toronto apartment." advances Mechling on these women. His mission from her? To portray the ambition, the resignation and the disillusionment that she, she considers her, are so ingrained in the city today.
And since when are female friendships so interesting to the reader? Because they are important in our lives and yet we don't talk about them with the complexity and honesty they deserve. "We don't have the vocabulary or the infrastructure to process the nuances of our friendships. We are also conditioned to see them as something positive in our lives that should not and will not change, even when our lives do . But the truth is that bonds with other people change all the time. Y adapting to these fluctuations is the challenge ", clarifies Mechling for Traveler.es.
We can't help it and throw the last question at her before letting her get back to promoting her book. Does this mean that friendships in adult life are not entirely possible? "Of course they are possible! We just need to understand the challenges involved and to be more kind and forgiving than we tend to be instinctively. Give space to your friends , recognize your differences and give yourself the opportunity to feel dark emotions such as envy or sorrow, "she concludes.
How Could She will be published in Spain next year thanks to Alba Books.
