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Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
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English
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A LIKELY STORY

Leigh McMullan Abramson

The only child of an iconic American novelist discovers a shocking tangle of family secrets that upends everything she thought she knew about her parents, her gilded childhood, and her own stalled writing career in this brilliantly observed standout debut.
Growing up in the nineties in New York City as the only child of famous parents was both a blessing and a curse for Isabelle Manning. Her beautiful society hostess mother, Claire, and New York Times bestselling author father, Ward, were the city's intellectual It couple. Ward's glamorous obligations often took him away from Isabelle, but Claire made sure her childhood was always filled with magic and love.

Now an adult, all Isabelle wants is to be a successful writer like her father but after many false starts and the unexpected death of her mother, she faces her upcoming thirty-fifth birthday alone and on the verge of a breakdown. Her anxiety only skyrockets when she uncovers some shocking truths about her parents and begins wondering if everything she knew about her family was all based on an elaborate lie.

Wry, wise, and propulsive, A Likely Story is punctuated with fragments of a compulsively readable book-within-a-book about a woman determined to steal back the spotlight from a man who has cheated his way to the top. The characters seem eerily familiar but is the plot based on fact? And more importantly, who is the author?

Leigh McMullan Abramson has worked as a lawyer and a journalist. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and more. A Likely Story is her first novel. Leigh lives in New York City and Vermont with her husband and children.
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Published 2023-03-14

Comments

I loved this sharp, multi-layered tale about the highly combustible relationship between love and ambition. Filled with family secrets, pitch-perfect details, and engagingly complex characters, it kept me hooked from page one.

In Abramson's psychologically rich and engrossing debut, the lives of New York literati are rendered in pitch-perfect, delicious detail, as a hidden manuscript exposes a web of family secretsand inspires an audacious deception.A Likely Storyis a testament to the power of fiction not just to imitate life, but to control it. I couldn't stop reading.

A dishy, sophisticated story about an aspiring novelist whose greatest influence (and hindrance) is her own famous father. Moving, enraging, and utterly romantic, A Likely Storyis literary gold.

A standout debut about family, secrets, and the costs of protecting a precious legacy. Abramson skillfully captures the idiosyncrasies of the New York artistic elite and then rips the veil away, revealing characters who are raw, complex, and utterly unforgettable.

...clever debut... keeps readers guessing about what the manuscript will reveal about the Mannings. It lands as a thought-provoking meditation on family.

A Likely Story is a literary page-turner and a thoroughly modern story of family mistakes and redemption that I couldn't put down.

Such a rich, clever story about the pitfalls of loving a celebrity.