Literary Underground

Eight years.

That's how long Erin Morgenstern ’00 fans have been waiting—impatiently—for The New York Times bestselling author of The Night Circus to come out with a new novel.

Well, they can breathe a sigh of relief because on November 5 her latest, The Starless Sea, finally arrived in bookstores. And if early reviews are any indication, it's been worth the wait.

Like The Night Circus, which has sold more than 3 million copies worldwide and has been optioned for film, The Starless Sea is a fantastical novel. But instead of a nocturnal Victorian circus, this book is about a secret subterranean library. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly writes, “This love letter to bibliophiles is dreamlike and uncanny, grounded in deeply felt emotion, and absolutely thrilling.”

Available for preorder.

THE STARLESS SEA
By Erin Morgenstern ’00
Doubleday, November 2019

This story originally appeared as part of the Smithies Create column in the Fall 2019 issue of the Smith Alumnae Quarterly.

Photograph by Allan Amato