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  • Published: 17 February 2026
  • ISBN: 9781804993804
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $28.00

Show Don't Tell





Bestselling and acclaimed new collection by the author of PREP, AMERICAN WIFE, ROMANTIC COMEDY and YOU THINK IT I'LL SAY IT.

YOUR NEXT READ FROM THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR of ROMANTIC COMEDY, PREP and AMERICAN WIFE
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A New York Times Editor's choice

'Messy and delicious' New York Times
'Sittenfeld is in a league of her own' Guardian
'
One of my favourite authors' KATE ATKINSON, author of Death at the Sign of the Rook
'Anything Sittenfeld writes, we'll read' People
'She understands women so well; like having someone look straight into your soul' Reader review*****
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Razor-sharp, glittering tales exploring marriage, fame and female friendship, from the Sunday Times bestselling author.

In this compulsive collection of twelve witty stories, Sittenfeld shows why she’s as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels, as she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends.

In ‘The Patron Saints of Middle Age,’ a woman visits two friends she hasn’t seen since her divorce. In ‘A for Alone,’ a married artist embarks on a project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone together without lusting after each other. And in ‘Lost but Not Forgotten,’ Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel Prep a new window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an awkward school reunion.

Witty, confronting and full of tenderness, Sittenfeld peels back layer after layer of our inner lives, keeping us riveted to the page with her utterly distinctive voice.

READERS CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF CURTIS SITTENFELD:

'Small windows into modern life and as such highly entertaining. Curtis, you're a star!' *****
'Sittenfeld understands women so well, it’s like having someone look straight into your soul'*****
'Devoured! You'll recognise yourself and others in these pages' *****
'No-one else writes with such precision and amusement' Red Magazine

  • Published: 17 February 2026
  • ISBN: 9781804993804
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 320
  • RRP: $28.00

About the author

Curtis Sittenfeld

Curtis Sittenfeld pulls no punches in her scathing and hilarious indictments of the American middle classes. Her Sunday Times bestselling novel American Wife was longlisted for the Orange Prize, as was her debut novel Prep. Her other books include The Man of My Dreams, Sisterland, Eligible, the acclaimed short story collection You Think It, I’ll Say It and her latest novel Rodham. Her stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Esquire, Oprah Magazine and the New York Times magazine. Sittenfeld is also the guest editor for the 2020 Best American Short Stories anthology. She lives with her family in the American Mid-West. Follow her on Twitter @CSittenfeld

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