Eat My Heart Out

The literary debut of feminist scholar and art critic Pilger has drawn much applause for its audacious narrator and her posh, darkly comic world in the U.K., where it was published in 2014. American readers can now meet the millennial antithesis to Bridget Jones: Pilger’s protagonist, 23-year-old Ann-Marie, didn’t finish her degree, can’t hold down a hostess gig, and systematically destroys every one of her romantic prospects, including Sebastian, the ex she obsesses over. In lieu of a diary, we see into Ann-Marie’s wicked-smart, increasingly desperate brain via texts and emails, as well as into her book bag—in which she carries tomes by Heidegger and Falling Out of Fate, by feminist writer Stephanie Haight. We rush along with Ann-Marie as she flails through a series of self-destructive flings; gets herself booted out of the townhouse she shares with her friend Freddie, the scion of a wealthy family pursuing post-Hirsch-style art; and finds herself subjected to (and rejecting) Haight’s self-styled boot camp. With this electric romp of a novel, Pilger turns a neon light on to the intersection of romantic love and feminism. (May)