The Girls at 17 Swann Street

The Girls at 17 Swann Street  by Yara Zgheib     384 pages (I read a galley - book is due out in 2019)

Per Goodreads, the description of this book is: My name is Anna. 

I am a dancer, a constant daydreamer. 

I like sparkling wine in the late afternoon, ripe and juicy strawberries in June. 

I believe in the rich taste of real vanilla ice cream, melting stickily from a cone...

I am madly in love, I am madly in loved. 

I believe in living life with purpose, but in floating through the day too. 

I have books to read, places to see, babies to make, birthday cakes to taste. I even have unused birthday wishes to spare. 

So what am I doing here?

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What this book doesn't tell you, and what I can reveal without much of a spoiler, is that Anna is receiving treatment for anorexia and is living at a house in St. Louis with a group of other women who are also in treatment.  I really enjoyed this book and found it was introspective without being annoying, realistic, but written in an engaging, lyrical way. You understand how Anna gradually descended to the state she's in when she enters the house on Swann Street, and while there is some back-and-forth in time, it's never jarring.  I started this book and found it difficult to put down ---- in fact, my husband remarked that's how he knew I had a book I was enjoying because if I had 10 minutes to wait for something in the oven, I was reading the book.

I liked that while the main perspective is Anna's, there is also some perspective coming from her husband when he's communicating with her. It was especially interesting to read Anna's interpretation of their relationship, and then how her memories of something would be changed when her husband would talk to her about the reality of those memories. Her exploration of how she got to Swann Street and also how she is going to get better and go back home, makes for a fascinating and compelling story.