Girls at 17 Swann Street

Yara is a reader, writer, traveler, yogi, lover of art, wine, black and white photographs, popcorn, and jazz. She was born in Lebanon and has pieces of her heart scattered over Paris, Beirut, London, Boston, and a few villages in Tuscany.She is the author of The Girls at 17 Swann Street and No Land to Light On, and writes weekly on culture, art, travel, and philosophy on her blog: The non-Utilitarian. Her essays are prose, poetry, musings, on things neither practical nor useful, but true and beautiful. Essential.Her writing has also appeared in The Huffington Post, The Four Seasons Magazine, HOLIDAY Magazine, The European, Womanscape, HOME Magazine, The Idea List, France Forward, Espresso Economics, A Woman's Paris, The Socio/Log, and others.

*A BookMovement Group Read* Yara Zgheib's poetic and poignant debut novel is a haunting portrait of a young woman's struggle with anorexia on an intimate journey to reclaim her life. The chocolate went first, then the cheese, the fries, the ice cream. The bread was more difficult, but if she could just lose a little more weight, perhaps she would make the soloists' list. Perhaps if she were lighter, danced better, tried harder, she would be good enough. Perhaps if she just ran for one more mile, lost just one more pound.Anna Roux was a professional dancer who followed the man of her dreams from Paris to Missouri. There, alone with her biggest fears - imperfection, failure, loneliness - she spirals down anorexia and depression till she weighs a mere eighty-eight pounds. Forced to seek treatment, she is admitted as a patient at 17 Swann Street, a peach pink house where pale, fragile women with life-threatening eating disorders live. Women like Emm, the veteran; quiet Valerie; Julia, always hungry. Together, they must fight their diseases and face six meals a day.Every bite causes anxiety. Every flavor induces guilt. And every step Anna takes toward recovery will require strength, endurance, and the support of the girls at 17 Swann Street.