Natalie Standiford

Finalist for the Gotham Book Prize

Praise for ASTRID SEES ALL

The Spectator's 2022 Books of the Year

"Acutely elegant...a seductive evocation of a lost world."

"I loved this dark and smart thriller about the East Village in the 1980's, starring a bright but lost young woman who is determined to chase danger and glamour and madness right up to the edge of reason. With shades of both Gatsby and Warhol, Standiford has created a vivid portrait of a seedy, edgy, artsy, and seething New York City that will never exist again. I flew through these pages."

-Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love and City of Girls

"Astrid Sees All is an unforgettable story: a Lower East Side night-world full of damaged young dreamers, all kids who want to be stars, but end up just breaking each other's hearts along with their own. Only Natalie Standiford could bring these girls to life with so much tender wit, street-wise compassion, and brilliant soul. She gives this novel the beautifully fragile strut of a Lou Reed guitar ballad."

-Rob Sheffield, author of Love Is a Mix Tape

"Astrid Sees All is so fun to read you might miss the grief that fuels this novel. Phoebe, the book's narrator, moves through the surreal kaleidoscopic world of 1980's club life as well as the dilapidated and electric East Village. Her struggle for self definition is remarkably honest; Phoebe is a feminist heroine as complicated as she is compelling."

-Darcey Steinke, author of Flash Count Diary and Suicide Blonde

"A new wave coming-of-age story, Astrid Sees All is a blast from the past, taking the reader back to the ratty Bohemia of the Lower East Side of the early '80s, complete with squatters, cold-water sublets, white punks on dope in the trashed bathrooms of trendy clubs, and even a cameo by the king of downtown, Lou Reed. Sharp-eyed and light on her feet, Natalie Standiford is the perfect tour guide for one young woman's leap from the ivied halls of college into another, even more unreal world."

- Stewart O'Nan, author of The Speed Queen

"Astrid Sees All has the startling vibrancy of a Nan Goldin photograph and the heartbreak and wit of a film by Preston Sturges, which is to say Natalie Standiford's vision is an original one. I loved Astrid so much that I didn't want this funny, sad novel to ever end. Standiford has the storytelling charm!"

– René Steinke, author of Holy Skirts and Friendswood

"Astrid Sees All zooms us back to the 1980s in the most delightful and nostalgic way: New York in all its craziness and magnetism is alive again through the clear-eyed observations and adventures of our witty and generous narrator."
-Martha McPhee, author of An Elegant Woman

"Standiford captures a beating, smoky world there, and within Phoebe, who keeps her deepest feelings hidden from everyone but readers.... There is page-turning plot aplenty here, dealing with the pains of grief, addiction, and simply growing up, all made endurable by love and friendship."

- Booklist

"Why do we crave screwed-up, funny novels about women in their 20s having bad sex and intense friendships in big cities? Let's, uh, not worry about it! Let's focus instead on Astrid Sees All, an excellent addition to the growing genre. It's 1980s Manhattan—so why not do drugs and make mistakes? That's more or less 22-year-old Phoebe's logic. She's grieving the loss of a parent and can't decide whether life has anything more beautiful in it than self-destruction. It's a dark story full of parties and psychic abilities and the glamorous decay that is growing up."

-Glamour

"Guiding readers on a descent into clubland…with the gusto of a certain Musto."

-The Millions: Most Anticipated

"There's a particular spell that can only be cast over someone's life by the insular motivations, half-logic, and self-consciousness of being both very young and very willing to throw one's body into the path of romantic destiny. To follow Phoebe into her story is to enter the world of that perilous magic."

-Emily Choate, Chapter 16

"'Astrid Sees All,' gives a girl's perspective to the gritty streets and clubs of New York City in 1984.... Standiford captures New York when it was dangerous and affordable. A place where the intrepid could pursue their dreams. Phoebe's story is worth the read and the ride."

--Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Smart details, lively digressions, and spot-on period snapshots... The author's glee in evoking the zeitgeist of the 1980s is infectious."

-Kirkus Reviews

"Dark and dazzling."

-Library Journal

Astrid Sees All

New York's last bohemia—the glittering, decadent downtown club scene of the 1980s—is the setting for this brilliantly winning novel about a smart, vulnerable young woman taking a deep dive into her dark side, essential for fans of Sweetbitter, Fleabag, and books by Patti Smith.

Astrid Sees All: A Novel by Natalie Standiford

New York, 1984: Twenty-two-year-old Phoebe Hayes is a young woman in search of excitement and adventure. But the recent death of her father has so devastated her that her mother wants her to remain home in Baltimore to recover. Phoebe wants to return to New York, not only to chase the glamorous life she so desperately craves but also to confront Ivan, the older man who wronged her.

With her best friend Carmen, she escapes to the East Village, disappearing into an underworld haunted by artists, It Girls, and lost souls trying to party their pain away. Carmen juggles her junkie-musician boyfriend and a sexy painter while, as Astrid the Star Girl, Phoebe tells fortunes in a nightclub and plots her revenge on Ivan.

When the intoxicating brew of sex, drugs, and self-destruction leads Phoebe to betray her friend, Carmen disappears, and Phoebe begins an unstoppable descent into darkness. She may have a chance to save herself—and Carmen, if she can find her—but to do it she must face what's hiding in the shadows she's been running from—within her heart and in the dangerous midnight streets.

A love letter to gritty 1980s New York City, Astrid Sees All is an irresistible, original novel about female friendship, sex and romance, and what it's like to be a young woman searching for an identity.

for BOOK CLUBS: ASTRID SEES ALL Reading Group Guide

Book Clubs! If you're reading ASTRID SEES ALL, I'd love to chat with you via Zoom after you've read the book! Check out this fabulous free Reading Group Guide and contact me via email: natalie@nataliestandiford.com. Let's set something up!

THE WORD ACCORDING TO KARP: ASTRID SEES ALL video link

S&S CEO Jonathan Karp recommends ASTRID SEES ALL (and talks about dipping his toe into NYC nightlife in 1989)

Praise for ASTRID SEES ALL

The Spectator's 2022 Books of the Year

Astrid Sees All

for BOOK CLUBS: ASTRID SEES ALL Reading Group Guide

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