{"product_id":"a-time-to-be-born-9781805333265","title":"A Time to Be Born","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAmanda Keeler has clawed her way out of the backwaters of Ohio and into the affections of Julien Evans, New York's most powerful newspaper tycoon. With his ex-wife vanquished, Amanda reigns over their Fifth Avenue mansion, publishing wildly successful (ghostwritten) novels, charming guests at martini-soaked parties and fending off Julien's pesky advances.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat's until the past comes knocking in the form of Vicky Haven, a meek school friend desperate for a lesson in reinvention. Ever the strategist, Amanda lands Vicky a job in listings and a studio apartment-perfectly placed for Amanda's daytime trysts with old flame, Ken Saunders. But matters of the heart rarely follow orders. When Vicky begins to wise up to her scheme, and sets her own sights on Ken, she ignites a love triangle that threatens to topple Amanda's carefully constructed empire.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eScathingly funny and irresistibly glamorous, \u003ci\u003eA Time to Be Born\u003c\/i\u003e is a timeless portrait of social climbing, set in a 1940s Manhattan rife with backstabbing charm, brittle friendships and women who always land on their feet.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch4\u003eDetails\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eISBN13: 9781805333265\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFormat: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNumber of Pages: 336\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEdition: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication Date: 15 Sep 2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublisher: Pushkin Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication City, Country: United Kingdom\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDimensions (cm): 19.8(H)x12.9(L)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWeight (gm): \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h4\u003eDawn Powell (1896-1965) was an American novelist and playwright known for her incisive satires of New York's cultural and literary circles. Born in Mount Gilead, Ohio, she endured a tumultuous childhood before running away at thirteen to live with an aunt who later supported her studies at Lake Erie College. After graduating, Powell moved to New York City, immersing herself in the bohemian atmosphere of Greenwich Village as a \"permanent visitor\" to the metropolis. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe gained early recognition for her witty, often risqué pieces in \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eEsquire\u003c\/i\u003e, and 1939 became a Scribner author, sharing legendary editor Maxwell Perkins with Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Although Powell enjoyed a devoted circle of admirers, her work drifted into obscurity after her death. Interest in her novels was revived decades later through Gore Vidal's appraisal in \u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books, \u003c\/i\u003eas well as championing from Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Tim Page, who as executor of her estate has worked tirelessly to keep Powell in print.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ch4\u003eReviews\u003c\/h4\u003eA huge talent, Dawn Powell. Sentence by sentence, among the greatest writers of her time -- Andrew O'Hagan, author of Caledonian Road\u003cbr\u003eSteers us through the lives of women who come to New York from the hinterlands, for love, money, opportunity and a good time. . . Few books have so bitingly and energetically captured the hunger for status and success that animate the city and enrage so many * NYT *\u003cbr\u003eA fascinating study of New York's power society, this novel published in 1942 was way ahead of its time - and remains uncannily current -- Hernan Diaz, author of Trust\u003cbr\u003eEffortlessly funny, fantastically mean without ever being cynical, and particularly astute on gender politics while avoiding earnestness and essentialism * The Atlantic, \"The Great American Novels\" *\u003cbr\u003eThis glittering, diamond-sharp satire of wealthy social climbers and the currency of love and sex could apply equally to today's mega-rich * Daily Mail *\u003cbr\u003eBrilliant and skilful. . . A Time to Be Born is startingly contemporary. It's still impossible to live in New York without being run over by an Amanda Keeler or two. . . As far as I'm concerned, they deserve their success more than most men. But they still scare the dickens out of me -- Candace Bushnell, author of Sex and the City\u003cbr\u003eI'm jealous of anyone who hasn't read A Time to Be Born because they get to read it for the first time. . .  Riotously funny and surprisingly tender and a brutally accurate satire of New York City life, even now. It ought to be as iconic as The Great Gatsby -- James Frankie Thomas, author of Idlewild\u003cbr\u003eFunny, smart, cool and socially impassioned. Dawn Powell is one of the great U.S. novelists of the 20th-century -- Fay Weldon, author of The Life and Loves of a She Devil\u003cbr\u003eTeeming with egregiously opportunistic, social-climbing Manhattanites... Powell's spoof of the high and mighty still sizzles half a century after it was written * Publishers Weekly *","brand":"Dawn Powell","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49279513002201,"sku":"9781805333265","price":24.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0502\/9530\/8441\/files\/9781805333265.jpg?v=1789818566","url":"https:\/\/www.arielbooks.com.au\/products\/a-time-to-be-born-9781805333265","provider":"Ariel","version":"1.0","type":"link"}