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American Fantasy
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American Fantasy

By: Emma Straub
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

EMBARK ON THE JOYOUS AND NOSTALGIC JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME IN THE LATEST NOVEL FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THIS TIME TOMORROW AND ALL ADULTS HERE

Annie is on a journey straight back to her past.

When the American Fantasy cruise ship sets sail for a four-day themed voyage, aboard are all five members of a famous 1990s boyband, and three thousand women who have worshipped them since their youth.

Newly divorced and with an empty nest, Annie is on board as a lark to appease her sister. Once a diehard fan of the band as a teen, she now feels out of place amid the sea of bedazzling t-shirts bearing the singers’ faces. Yet when the lights go down, the cocktails are poured and the band starts singing, Annie finally reconnects to a long-submerged part of herself.

As she encounters Keith, the band’s slightly depressed, fifty-something lead singer – not just a celebrity but someone clearly in need of a friend – she feels like anything is possible.

But is the connection between Annie and Keith just a fantasy? Or is this the beginning of a new chapter for them both?

Full of laugh-out-loud reflections on fame, nostalgia, marriage and growing up, American Fantasy celebrates the magic of revisiting our youth, and the even greater magic of starting anew.

'Pure joy' Ann Patchett
'Fun, delicious, big-hearted' Taylor Jenkins Reid
'Criminally readable' Maria Semple
'I can't TELL you the enjoyment it gave me' Marian Keyes
'I was completely swept away' Coco Mellors
'You will feel so understood by this novel' Rainbow Rowell

© Emma Straub 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

 Contemporary Family Life Genre Fiction Romantic Comedy

Critic reviews

American Fantasy is such a fun, delicious, big-hearted book. (Taylor Jenkins Reid)
I can hardly remember the last time I read anything that brought me such pure joy. I was up too late reading, then got up too early to go back to reading. All I wanted was American Fantasy. It brims with truth and humanity and insight, and it made me snort like a pig. I loved it. I think the entire country will love it. (Ann Patchett)
Wow, who knew that what my life was missing was a book about boats and boybands?! This is a treasure chest of a story, filled with Straub’s signature warmth, humour, compassion and insight. I rooted for these characters and worried about them, and by the end, much like the Talkers, I was completely swept away by my love for them. An unmitigated pleasure from start to finish. I did not want to return to dry land! (Coco Mellors)
So much fun but with such depth to the characters. Looking at midlife through Annie’s lens is a buoying experience. Even though it's super accurate about the reckonings of mid-life, the tone is blithe and hopeful, and that is so NEEDED right now. I can’t TELL you the enjoyment it gave me. (Marian Keyes)
Peak intelligence and criminally readable (Maria Semple)
A delicious novel about being a grown-up girl who once loved something very, very much. You don't have to be a fan of something to love American Fantasy, but if you've ever truly devoted yourself to a boy band or a TV show or even a series of books, you will feel so understood by this novel. (Rainbow Rowell)
American Fantasy is written by Emma Straub, so obviously it is poignant, nuanced and unexpectedly hilarious. I didn’t know how badly I needed to be fully transported to a boy band cruise ship. Cheaper than therapy, and a lot more fun! (Holly Brickley)
Emma Straub is the most empathetic and open-hearted writer in literature. It is pure joy to see her turn to the emotionally complicated territory of teenage nostalgia and what it means to reconnect with the feelings of youth from the realities of middle age. In American Fantasy Straub uncovers the beauty and regret of reconciling who we once were with who we are now. (Kevin Wilson)
Straub writes with such verve and sympathetic understanding of her characters . . . Reading this novel has all the pleasures of reading one of Anne Tyler's compelling family portraits
Straub writes beautifully and amusingly . . . hard to beat for sheer charm and gentle wit
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