The Company She Keeps

Told through six interlinked stories, this is a dazzling, fractured portrait of 1930s New York, and of the witty, bohemian heroine at the novel's heart. Through her encounters and experiences - with men, with radical politics, with psychoanalysis - we follow Margaret Sargent as she negotiates a fraught relationship between love and independence in a time of coming war.

Based loosely on the author's own life, The Company She Keeps caused an instant sensation, and won Mary McCarthy immediate acclaim for its bold insight, sly wit and virtuoso style.