Clutch (Pre-Order Feb 3rd)

Clutch by Emily Nemens (Pre-Order Feb 3rd)

Clutch, by Emily Nemens, is a rich and deeply absorbing novel about five women whose twenty-year friendship is tested by ambition, love, and the quiet crises of midlife—asking an essential question: When you’re barely holding on, how do you still show up for the people you love?

As undergraduates, Reba, Hillary, Carson, Gregg, and Bella formed the kind of unbreakable bond college brochures promise. Two decades later, their lives look nothing like they imagined, yet they remain fiercely connected through a constant, ever-unfurling group chat that has carried them through childbirth, career upheavals, and a global pandemic.

When the women reunite in Palm Springs for the first time in years, each arrives carrying private burdens. Gregg, now a progressive Texas legislator, faces a career-defining political decision. Reba has returned to the Bay Area and is juggling IVF treatments, aging parents, and a city that feels increasingly unfamiliar. Hillary’s medical career is thriving in Chicago, but her marriage is unraveling under the weight of her husband’s addiction. In New York, Bella stands at the peak of her legal career as her personal life collapses, while in Brooklyn, Carson works on a new novel—and cautiously opens the door to a relationship with the father she’s never known.

As old patterns resurface and new truths emerge, the women are forced to reckon with how much of themselves they can give—to their work, their families, and each other—without losing what makes them whole.

Tender, incisive, and expansive, Clutch is a celebration of female friendship and an unflinching portrait of what it means to grow up without growing apart.