Grant Ginder

"Family dysfunction at its best. This novel is addicting and entertaining and I couldn't put it down!" - Jennifer Close, New York Times bestselling author of Girls in White Dresses and The Hopefuls A Publishers Weekly BEST SUMMER BOOKS, 2017 Relationships are awful. They'll kill you, right up to the point where they start saving your life. Paul and Alice’s half-sister Eloise is getting married! In London! There will be fancy hotels, dinners at “it” restaurants and a reception at a country estate complete with tea lights and embroidered cloth napkins. They couldn’t hate it more. The People We Hate at the Wedding is the story of a less than perfect family. Donna, the clan’s mother, is now a widow living in the Chicago suburbs with a penchant for the occasional joint and more than one glass of wine with her best friend while watching House Hunters International. Alice is in her thirties, single, smart, beautiful, stuck in a dead-end job where she is mired in a rather predictable, though enjoyable, affair with her married boss. Her brother Paul lives in Philadelphia with his older, handsomer, tenured track professor boyfriend who’s recently been saying things like “monogamy is an oppressive heteronormative construct,” while eyeing undergrads. And then there’s Eloise. Perfect, gorgeous, cultured Eloise. The product of Donna’s first marriage to a dashing Frenchman, Eloise has spent her school years at the best private boarding schools, her winter holidays in St. John and a post-college life cushioned by a fat, endless trust fund. To top it off, she’s infuriatingly kind and decent. As this estranged clan gathers together, and Eloise's walk down the aisle approaches, Grant Ginder brings to vivid, hilarious life the power of family, and the complicated ways we hate the ones we love the most in the most bitingly funny, slyly witty and surprisingly tender novel you’ll read this year.

The People We Hate at the Wedding

From Grant Ginder, the author of The People We Hate at the Wedding , comes a poignant, funny, and slyly beguiling novel about family, politics, and the lengths we’ll go to for our children, perfect for fans of HBO’s Veep and Kevin Wilson’s Nothing to See Here. Nancy Harrison is running for Senate, and she’s going to win, God dammit. Not that that’s her slogan, although it should be. This is what she’s worked so hard for over the years after her husband’s untimely death (which was definitely not her fault) and inheriting his seat in the House of Representatives. She’s said all the right things. Passed all the right legislation. Chapped her lips kissing babies. There’s just one problem: her grown children. Greta and Nick Harrison are adrift. Nick, recently heartbroken, is floundering in his attempts to write a musical about the life of Joan Didion (called Hello to All That). And then there’s his little sister Greta. Smart, pretty, and completely unmotivated by anything, allowing her life to pass her by like the shoppers at the Apple store where she works. But then one morning the world wakes up not to Nancy making headlines, but Greta. She’s in Paris. With extremist protestors. Throwing a bottle of champagne through a beloved bistro’s front window. In order to save her campaign, not to mention her daughter, Nancy and Nick must find Greta before it’s too late. Smart and poignant, funny and tear-jerking, Let’s Not Do That Again proves that like democracy, family is a messy and fragile thing that means more than any mother, or senator, could ever dream.

A Novel

Let's Not Do That Again

“This rollicking book has it all: sex, lies, and scenery. Grant Ginder weaves a wonderful, engrossing multi-generational family story, with the Greek isles as a backdrop so beautiful that the reader will want to dive in.” — Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of The Vacationers and Modern Lovers An irresistible, deftly observed novel about family, regret, and vacation by the author of The People We Hate at the Wedding The Wright family is in ruins. Sue Ellen Wright has what she thinks is a close-to-perfect life. A terrific career as a Classics professor, a loving husband, and a son who is just about to safely leave the nest. But then disaster strikes. She learns that her husband is cheating, and that her son has made a complete mess of his life. So, when the opportunity to take her family to a Greek island for a month presents itself, she jumps at the chance. This sunlit Aegean paradise, with its mountains and beaches is, after all, where she first fell in love with both a man and with an ancient culture. Perhaps Sue Ellen’s past will provide the key to her and her family’s salvation. With his signature style of biting wit, hilarious characters, and deep emotion, Grant Ginder’s Honestly, We Meant Well is a funny, brilliant novel proving that with family, drama always comes with comedy.

Honestly, We Meant Well

"It’s for the same audience that flocked to The Nest, Where’d You Go, Bernadette? or dare I say a little book you might be a fan of, Crazy Rich Asians." — Kevin Kwan, New York Times bestselling author of Crazy Rich Asians "Sinfully good." — Elin Hilderbrand Entertainment Weekly's Summer Must-Read A Publishers Weekly BEST SUMMER BOOKS, 2017 New York Post Best Books of Summer Redbook's 10 Books You Have To Read This Summer "The summer’s most compelling fictional exploration of affluence and envy. Like all the best beach reads, it eats the rich like so many frozen grapes." — Bloomberg Businessweek Relationships are awful. They'll kill you, right up to the point where they start saving your life. Paul and Alice’s half-sister Eloise is getting married! In London! There will be fancy hotels, dinners at “it” restaurants and a reception at a country estate complete with tea lights and embroidered cloth napkins. They couldn’t hate it more. The People We Hate at the Wedding is the story of a less than perfect family. Donna, the clan’s mother, is now a widow living in the Chicago suburbs with a penchant for the occasional joint and more than one glass of wine with her best friend while watching House Hunters International. Alice is in her thirties, single, smart, beautiful, stuck in a dead-end job where she is mired in a rather predictable, though enjoyable, affair with her married boss. Her brother Paul lives in Philadelphia with his older, handsomer, tenured track professor boyfriend who’s recently been saying things like “monogamy is an oppressive heteronormative construct,” while eyeing undergrads. And then there’s Eloise. Perfect, gorgeous, cultured Eloise. The product of Donna’s first marriage to a dashing Frenchman, Eloise has spent her school years at the best private boarding schools, her winter holidays in St. John and a post-college life cushioned by a fat, endless trust fund. To top it off, she’s infuriatingly kind and decent. As this estranged clan gathers together, and Eloise's walk down the aisle approaches, Grant Ginder brings to vivid, hilarious life the power of family, and the complicated ways we hate the ones we love the most in the most bitingly funny, slyly witty and surprisingly tender novel you’ll read this year.

Paul and Alice's half-sister Eloise is getting married! In London! There will be fancy hotels, dinners at "it" restaurants and a reception at a country estate complete with tea lights and embroidered cloth napkins. They couldn't hate it more. The People We Hate at the Wedding is the story of a family. Donna, the clan's mother, is now a widow living in the Chicago suburbs with a penchant for the occasional joint and more than one glass of wine with her best girlfriend while watching House Hunters International. Alice is in her thirties, single, smart, beautiful, stuck in a dead-end job where she is mired in a rather predictable, though enjoyable affair with her married boss. She might just like her klonopin prescription a bit too much. Her brother Paul lives in Philadelphia with his older, handsomer, tenured track Penn professor boyfriend who's recently been saying things like "monogamy is an oppressive heteronormative construct," while eyeing his lacrosse bro undergrads. Paul works for a famous "immersive" psychologist - sadistically forcing people to confront their own fears day in and day out. He hates it. And then there's Eloise. Perfect, gorgeous, cultured Eloise. The product of Donna's first marriage to the dashing European playboy of the Western World Henrique, Eloise has spent her school years at the best private boarding schools, her winter holidays in St. John and a post-college life cushioned by a fat, endless trust fund. You can't even, with her, can you? As this dysfunctional clan gathers together, and Eloise's walk down the aisle approaches, Grant Ginder brings to vivid, hilarious life the power of family, the possibilities of friendship, and the complicated ways we hate the ones we love the most in this bitingly funny, slyly witty and surprisingly tender novel.

Near death, a widower who neglected his son to take driving trips in a '56 Chevy Bel Air begs his grandson to retrieve the car, a quest that leads the young man through the cities where his grandfather had his greatest adventures.

Driver's Education

in the tradition of Jay McInerney, Grant Ginder’s phenomenal debut novel follows one post-collegiate idealist on his quest to fit in with—and then distance himself from—capital hill’s up-andcoming political and social elite who work hard but play harder. • Striking debut: echoing with razor-sharp commentary, This Is How It Starts deftly captures the escapades of D.C.’s moneyed, socially and politically connected recent graduates. In this Bright Lights, Big City for the beltway, secrets are currency, the sex is bipartisan, and rules and boundaries are obsolete. • Remarkable voice: Ginder’s writing is smart, witty, and resonates with an authenticity that will hook literary-minded readers of Brett easton ellis, Jeff Hobbs, and Joshua Ferris. • Intriguing narrator: Taylor mack may have graduated from Princeton, but his Laguna Beach upbringing inadequately prepared him for life among D.C.’s movers and shakers. entertaining mishaps aside, Taylor soon discerns how to play the game and learns the cost of being an insider in a town that is unyielding in what it will take from a person in exchange for granting him a margin of knowledge and power.

This Is How It Starts

A Most Anticipated Novel of 2026 by Time, Town & Country, Bustle, and Zibby Media • February Book Club Pick by Good Housekeeping “Grant Ginder has written The Big Chill of our times…and possibly done an even better job. So Old, So Young is a triumph. I will never forget these characters.” —Elin Hilderbrand “So Old, So Young is a story of romantic love, professional jealousy, misplaced longing, and—above all—the gift of lifelong friendship. You will laugh on every page, except for when you find yourself moved to tears.” —Jenny Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Pineapple Street Six Friends. Five Parties. Twenty Years… How did we get So Old, So Young? From Grant Ginder, the bestselling author of The People We Hate at the Wedding, comes a generation-defining novel that is part love story, part tragic comedy. Five parties over the course of twenty years bring six college friends together, exploring the ways we run from and cling to our friends in love, life, and death. For Marco and Mia, Sasha and Theo, Richie and Adam, the one constant in life after college together has been change. New jobs. New cities. New spouses. New children. Through it all, one thing they thought would always stay the same is their friendship. But time has a way of breaking even the strongest bonds, and testing what we thought we knew. From East Village apartment parties and disastrous destination weddings, to fortieth birthdays and suburban backyard barbecues, Grant Ginder’s resonant, funny, and deeply moving novel is a story about the growing pains of the Millennial generation, and a celebration of how love can shift, stumble, and grow into something bigger than we ever could have imagined.

So Old, So Young

Meet Taylor Mark: a recent college graduate who has moved to Washington, D.C., to work for John Grayson, the less-than-brilliant congressman from his home district in southern California. Inadequately prepared for life among D.C.'s movers and shakers, Taylor quickly learns that Washington is a city where deals are made behind closed doors. And there's no one better to teach him -- and Grayson -- that lesson than Chase Latham, Taylor's former college roommate and the son of a powerful lobbyist. To Chase, the Beltway's bars, restaurants, town houses, and government offices are one big, debauched playground -- a land of milk and honey where secrets are currency, the sex is bipartisan, and rules and boundaries are obsolete. It's a place where, as the stakes are raised, the line between right and wrong becomes blurred and friends' loyalties are nothing more than fragments of the past. This Is How It Starts is an incisively written debut novel about how far one postcollegiate idealist will go to be an insider in a town that is unyielding in what it will take from a person in exchange for granting him a margin of knowledge and power.

"Hilarious, suspenseful, and whip smart." —Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney Meet the Harrisons! A mother running for Senate, a son running from his problems, and a daughter running straight into trouble... From Grant Ginder, the author of The People We Hate at the Wedding, comes a poignant, funny, and slyly beguiling novel which proves that, like democracy, family is a messy and fragile thing —perfect for fans of Veep’s biting humor, the family drama of Succession, and the joys of Kevin Wilson’s Nothing to See Here. Nancy Harrison is running for Senate, and she’s going to win, goddamnit. Not that that’s her slogan, although it could be. She’s said all the right things. Passed all the right legislation. Chapped her lips kissing babies. There’s just one problem: her grown children. Greta and Nick Harrison are adrift. Nick is floundering in his attempts to write a musical about the life of Joan Didion (called Hello to All That!). And then there’s his little sister Greta. Smart, pretty, and completely unmotivated, allowing her life to pass her by like the shoppers at the Apple store where she works. One morning the world wakes up not to Nancy making headlines, but her daughter, Greta. She’s in Paris. With extremist protestors. Throwing a bottle of champagne through a beloved bistro’s front window. In order to save her campaign, not to mention her daughter, Nancy and Nick must find Greta before it’s too late. Smart, funny, and surprisingly tender, Let's Not Do That Again shows that family, like politics, can hurt like a mother.

He’s a big man, my granddad, not necessarilyin size or proportion, but in other ways, like the manner in which he lives. The trouble in which he finds himself. The magic that heconjures and the spectacular things he believes. When he was a younger man, Alistair McPhee was fond of escaping in his ’56 Chevy Bel Air, Lucy, named for the cherished wife who died and left him and their nine-year-old son Colin behind. Yearning for a way to connect to his itinerant father, Colin turned to writing screenplays inspired by the classic films they used to watch together, while Colin’s own son, Finn, grew up listening to his grandfather spin tales of danger, heartbreak, and redemption on the road. Now, at the end of his life and wishing to feel the wind in his hair one last time, Alistair charges his grandson with a task: bring Lucy to him in San Francisco from New York, where a man named Yip has been keeping her safe. The long road west will lead Finn, accompanied by his disgruntled friend Randal and an ancient three-legged orange cat named Mrs. Dalloway, through the very cities that supposedly bore witness to Alistair’s greatest adventures, offering an unlikely lesson in the differences between facts and truth, between boys and men. Driver’s Education is at once a literary adventure and a finely detailed family portrait, combining in a bold declaration of Grant Ginder’s outstanding storytelling gifts.

Grant Ginder

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