Dear Monica Lewinsky

A LIT HUB MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR
'A wild, wonderful essential novel'
Claire Lombardo, author of The Most Fun We Ever Had
' Will remind you why you fell in love with reading '
Oprah Daily, Best Book of Spring 2026
' Outrageously funny novel about hunger, desire, and the vulnerable'
Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing to See Here
During a French summer exchange programme in the late 90s, Jean embarked on an inappropriate relationship with her professor. Decades later Jean, now in her forties, is invited back to Europe by said professor for his retirement party... sending Jean into an emotional crisis.
In a desperate frenzy of guilt and regret, she finds herself praying to Monica Lewinsky for forgiveness. To Jean's shock, Saint Monica appears, and together they delve back into those sunlit, sexually charged six weeks in France.
Replete with Saint Monica's fiery insights into female martyrdom through the ages, this is a wise, funny, and wildly original examination of female desire, male power and the price women pay for giving in to their appetites.
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Rave reviews for Dear Monica Lewinsky
' Dear Monica Lewinsky is a miracle' Katy Hays, New York Times-bestselling author of Saltwater
' Langbein's prose is a sharp, witty meditation on female longing and male authority' Oprah Daily
'A wholly original feminist ode' Emily Habeck, author of Shark Heart
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Readers LOVE Dear Monica Lewinsky
'Nothing short of BRILLIANT' *
'Sharp, witty, and unputdownable' *
'Buzz books that's worth the hype' *
'Wishing it would never end' *
'Propulsive ' *

Julia Langbein holds a doctorate in art history and is the author of the novels Dear Monica Lewinsky and American Mermaid as well as a monograph about press art and modernist painting ( Laugh Lines: Caricaturing Painting in Nineteenth-Century France). She has written about food, art, and travel for Bon Appétit, Gourmet, Eater, Salon, Frieze, and other publications, and received a 2024 James Beard Foundation Journalism Award. A native of Chicago, she lives outside of Paris with her family.