’;Reading [this book] is like driving down the road with a companion who is so smart and funny and insightful that her conversation transforms the landscape’ (Jane Smiley, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of A Thousand Acres). The twelve ’;meticulously observed’ stories of Women and Children First showcase New York Timesbestselling author and National Book Award finalist Francine Prose at her finestoffering a glimpse into the lives of men and women searching for connection and meaning in a world that often seems pre-programmed for absurdity (The New York Times). An adult daughter struggling to understand her father’s newfound Hasidic faith, an alcoholic trying to improve himself by fasting, a housewife enrolled in the New Consciousness Academy, a French literature professor who’s begun to fear Madame Bovary, and a young woman seeking direction from a Tibetan master in the company of neurotic, overeager followersthese are the achingly, hilariously real people who inhabit these ’;wise and witty’ stories (Minneapolis Star-Tribune).