How to Behave in a Crowd

“How to Behave in a Crowd joins the league of novels about adolescence persuasively told by adolescent narrators. ‘Who would care for a novel about us?’ asks one of Dory’s siblings. The answer is: everyone.” ­­—The New York Times Book Review

“Smart, charming . . . . Izzy is a wonderful narrator, keenly observant, but also inherently caring and inadvertently astute, ironic, touching, or flat-out hilarious.” —Heller McAlpin, NPR

“A sharp, sweet, and wry coming of age story. . . . About pretentious people but never pretentious, the story unfolds with humor and compassion.” —Kathleen Rooney, Chicago Tribune

“A deeply satisfying work of literary fiction.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Intriguing. . . . in its humor and sadness, beauty and bluntness, youthful perspective and mature insight.” —Publishers Weekly

“An utterly charming book—moving, witty, funny, and especially wonderful for the mature kind-heartedness of its view of humanity. Camille Bordas is an invaluable new voice.” —George Saunders

“In How to Behave in a Crowd, six brilliant French siblings, reeling in the wake of their father’s death, ask themselves a question, straight from Montaigne: ‘How should we live?’ To answer it they write novels, complete multiple PhDs, analyze almost everything, joke about everything else. Even if Salinger’s Glass family moved to rural France I doubt they would conjure a tale this funny, humane and slyly philosophical. Camille Bordas’ first novel in English is charm itself!” —Zadie Smith

“A tender, smart, and very funny novel. Isidore and his world are wonderfully particular and eccentric, but we will all recognize the painful-yet-thrilling experience of being on the cusp of adulthood. Bordas perfectly captures the special beauty of an adolescent: a brain as smart as any adult but with a heart uncorrupted by experience.” —Dana Spiotta

“Camille Bordas will enchant her readers with this brilliantly dark story of an eccentric family negotiating with loss. She is J.D. Salinger as a French woman—what more could you want?” —Catherine Lacey

“Camille Bordas is completely brilliant. Soon she will lay waste to the sad landscape of American letters.” —Jesse Ball

“At once tender and heartbreaking, yet also sharp and funny, How to Behave in A Crowd is a brilliantly rendered and utterly charming story about the idiosyncrasies and struggles of coming of age. This smart, gripping, witty novel is an absolute must-read.” —Yasmine El Rashidi