Gail Godwin



Gail Godwin

Gail Godwin


“Old friends now, Gail Godwin and I met as students in Kurt Vonnegut's writing class. With insightful reflection, as she prepares herself for the inevitable, Gail has recalled the loved ones she's lost—in the same crystalline prose that distinguishes her fiction. This book makes me remember the loved ones I've lost, in all the good ways. I wrote Gail that I especially loved the part about the man who thought she was a nun. He just mistook her dedication to writing for a different kind of devotion—one that also requires sacrifice.”
John Irving

"Getting to Know Death could just as easily be called Getting to Know Life. As a meditation, it is both unsentimental and full of wonder. As a piece of writing, it stands beside the best of Godwin's fiction. Extraordinary." —Ann Patchett

From New York Times-bestselling, three-time National Book Award finalist Gail Godwin, a consideration of what makes for a life well lived-for readers of Oliver Sacks's Gratitude and Deborah Levy's Cost of Living. Read more>>

Getting to Know Death
Now Available!

Old Lovegood Girls

Old Lovegood Girls

Now Available!

". . . she’s still challenging herself and us. Her latest book, “Old Lovegood Girls,” is a richly layered novel based on a lifetime of reflection on friendship and storytelling. In a culture obsessed with youth, it’s a welcome reminder that age and wisdom can confer certain advantages, too".
The Washington Post

From the bestselling, award-winning author of Flora and Evensong comes the story of two remarkable women and the complex friendship between them that spans decades. 

When the dean of Lovegood Junior College for Girls decides to pair Feron Hood with Merry Jellicoe as roommates in 1958, she has no way of knowing the far-reaching consequences of the match. Feron, who has narrowly escaped from a dark past, instantly takes to Merry and her composed personality. Surrounded by the traditions and four-story Doric columns of Lovegood, the girls—and their friendship—begin to thrive. But underneath their fierce friendship is a stronger, stranger bond, one comprised of secrets, rivalry, and influence... Read More

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"Literary treasure Godwin's shimmeringly alive new novel follows a True North female friendship through 41 years of shifting connections, love, tragedy, and the deep drama of a changing world, but it's also about so much more, like the secrets that can make or break us, and how stories can virtually save our souls, leading us to something we never realized that we needed to know...
Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of PICTURES OF YOU and CRUEL BEAUTIFUL WORLD

Gail Godwin is a three-time National Book Award finalist and the bestselling author of more
than a dozen critically acclaimed books, including Publishing, a memoir, and the novels Flora,
Father Melancholy's Daughter, and Evensong. | Learn More

Gail's Books

  • Getting to Know Death
  • Old Lovegood Girls
  • Grief Cottage
  • Publishing
  • Flora
  • Making of a Writer Volume 2
  • Unfinished Desires
  • Queen of the Underworld
  • Making of a Writer
  • Evenings at Five
  • Heart
  • Evensong
  • Good Husband
  • Father Melancholy's Daughter
  • Southern Family
  • Finishing School
  • Mr. Bedford and the Muses
  • Mother and Two Daughters
  • Violet Clay
  • Dream Children
  • Odd Woman
  • Glass People
  • Perfectionists