Abroad: A Novel

Not since Donna Tartt's The Secret History has a novel this intoxicating captured the headiness and dark temptations of university life.

The ancient Italian city of Grifonia swarms with students-thousands of them from all over the world. Ostensibly, they've come to study abroad. But in reality they are here to reinvent themselves, far from the watchful eyes of parents and others who know them well. Taz Deacon arrives young and insecure, desperate to fit in with a group of girls who expose her to an adult world of parties and pleasure that mask a dark secret. Her roommate Claire disapproves of Taz's friends, but engages in her own sensational activities, which both fascinate and shock Taz. As friendships develop and unravel, Taz and Claire become inextricably bound together in a tragic fate that reveals the dark underbelly of this beautiful Italian city.

In Abroad, bestselling novelist Katie Crouch tears a story from international headlines and transforms it into a page-turning parable of modern girlhood, full of longing and reckless behavior.