Other People's Clothes
A Novel
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4.1 • 33 Ratings
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Two American ex-pats obsessed with the Amanda Knox trial find themselves at the nexus of murder and celebrity in glittering late-aughts Berlin in this “hugely entertaining” (The New York Times) debut with a wicked sense of humor.
“Darkly funny, psychologically rich and utterly addictive... [a] harrowing tale of twisty female friendships, slippery identity and furtive secrets.” —Megan Abbott, best-selling author of The Turnout
Hoping to escape the pain of the recent murder of her best friend, art student Zoe Beech finds herself studying abroad in the bohemian capital of Europe—Berlin. Rudderless, Zoe relies on the arrangements of fellow exchange student Hailey Mader, who idolizes Warhol and Britney Spears and wants nothing more than to be an art star.
When Hailey stumbles on a posting for a high-ceilinged, prewar sublet by well-known thriller writer Beatrice Becks, the girls snap it up. They soon spend their nights twisting through Berlin’s club scene and their days hungover. But are they being watched? Convinced that Beatrice intends to use their lives as inspiration for her next novel, Hailey vows to craft main-character-worthy personas. They begin hosting a decadent weekly nightclub in the apartment, finally gaining the notoriety they’ve been craving. Everyone wants an invitation to “Beatrice’s.” As the year unravels and events spiral out of control, they begin to wonder whose story they are living—and how it will end.
Other People’s Clothes brilliantly illuminates the sometimes dangerous intensity of female friendships, as well as offering an unforgettable window into millennial life and the lengths people will go to in order to eradicate emotional pain.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Henkel's engrossing debut stages a cat and mouse game between a novelist and two art students in which art bleeds (literally and profusely) into life and vice versa. In 2008, NYU art student Zoe travels to Berlin for a year abroad in search of European "dignity and reason" after her friend, Ivy, is murdered. She will find neither. Zoe's Berlin roommate and classmate is Hailey, a conceptual artist obsessed with Law and Order SVU and Amanda Knox (that "sexed-up Joan of Arc"), and bent on achieving Warholian fame. They rent the apartment of bestselling pulp novelist Beatrice Becks. With Berlin's "hedonistic wells still running deep," Zoe and Hailey embrace the drug-fueled spectacle, meeting pretentious art world habitués, Habsburg descendants, and louche seducers who deliver lines like "I collect experiences and handblown glass, but my dad bought Richter early." Soon Zoey and Hailey suspect Beatrice is reading their diaries and emails for plot material, and Hailey, petrified of them being "immortalized as losers," conspires with Zoe to gin up drama. But as Beatrice's interventions intensify and Hailey seeks to exploit Ivy's tragic death for fame, Hailey and Zoe's friendship and lives are jeopardized. The antics grow increasingly outlandish, but Henkel shines with her wry, well-observed portrait of the artist. In the end, this offers an intelligent dissection of the insatiable appetite for dead girl stories.
Customer Reviews
See AllObsessed with this
This book literally keeps you gripped until the last second. As the characters devolve into madness, I was right along with them losing my grip on what was possible right up to the last line. Slay
Every night you miss in Berlin, is a night you miss in Berlin
If you ever spent a semester abroad, read this book. If you never spent a semester abroad, read this book. A fast read that keeps you guessing and wondering, “what is Art? Is this art?” along the way.
Keeps you reading past your bedtime
The perspective henkel provides makes you feel as though you are truly moving through a moment in life with the young women whom this story focuses on. The toggling between the mundane and apathy of life in your early 20s and the bizarre thrill of the unthinkable moments creates a story arc that keeps you up at night to keep reading and seeps into your subconscious. Full of wit, dry, dark humor and intrigue this story is a phenomenal read