Friendship of Anne: A Story

The intense, aching world of schoolgirl friendship takes center stage in this early 20th century boarding school story. Sydney Stuart has no desire to be packed off to Miss Crandon's Academy, but once there, she finds something far more challenging than Latin and geometry: the delicate politics of female friendship. Sydney and her roommate Bertha Macy are natural rivals in everything, but both find themselves drawn to the same girl, the charming and elusive Anne Talbot. What follows is a tender, sometimes painful exploration of how deeply young people feel, how fiercely they can love, and how cruelly they can compete. Deland captures with remarkable precision the way friendship in adolescence can feel like the most important thing in the world, because for these girls, it is.