The Flock

“Ellen Bar writes about friendship with the precision of a choreographer and the tenderness of someone who understands that our earliest loves—be they romantic, platonic, artistic—never really leave our bodies. At once an unputdownable mystery and a vivid and specific portrait of ambition, grief, and the families we assemble for ourselves. A book full of intelligence, heart, and forward motion.”—Lena Dunham, New York Times bestselling author of Famesick

“A rare and dazzling novel about friendship, art, and ambition in the vein of Rona Jaffe, Mary McCarthy, and Meg Wolitzer, Ellen Bar’s debut is a modern classic. Part mystery, part backstage pass, The Flock—like any great ballet—expertly balances character and musicality with movement and urgency. A truly bravura performance that will stay with you long after the curtain has dropped or the last page has turned.”—Katy Hays, New York Times bestselling author of Saltwater

“Ellen Bar writes with nuance and compassion, whether she’s showing us the heat and devotion of ballet dancers in training, or the different ways a career in dance can implode, transform, or triumph. The Flock takes an insider’s look at a singular art form—in all its power and vulnerability—and uses it to offer a beautifully compelling portrait of loyalty, responsibility, and the ways deep friendships are forged and tested. Brava!”—Meg Howrey, author of They’re Going to Love You

“The Flock is a gripping meditation on friendship, and a dramatic, behind-the-curtain peek into the cloistered world of professional dance. It’s the kind of raw, true-to-life perspective that only an insider, like former New York City Ballet soloist Ellen Bar, can provide. She’s delivered a powerful debut that mines the costs, and the riches, of a life wholly dedicated to the arts.”—Nathan Englander, author of For The Relief of Unbearable Urges

“The Flock cracked my jaded heart wide open. It takes readers from the dreamy pretend-adulthood of life at an elite NYC school for ballet to the crushing realities and epic triumphs of real adulthood, following characters who are now as real to me as my own friends. I’ve missed them ever since I finished this book, which I immediately wanted to pick up and start again. I cried when I reached the last page, mourning my own lost youth but oddly reassured by the idea that midlife is not too late to begin life over again. Ellen Bar’s masterful prose never gets in the way of her story, which takes readers deep inside a backstage world most of us will never see. Juicy, thrilling, poignant, funny, and deeply, universally human.”—Emily Gould, author of And The Heart Says Whatever, Friendship, and Perfect Tunes