Beautiful Girls is a debut collection about the secret lives of girls and women. Told with humor and grace, these stories illuminate the search for love, friendship, connection, and identity.
From the fierce bonds among sisters, to the discoveries of a girl who roams her neighborhood in the wee hours of the morning, to the allure of a tropical paradise where anything feels possible, Beautiful Girls explores what it means to be a woman in the modern world, looking for a place to call home.
At once magical, tender, and wise, this book establishes Beth Ann Bauman as a bold new literary voice.
“What are the storms of adolescence, and how should they be weathered? What does it mean to be beautiful? To be in love? To have parents? To lose them? Reading this book reminds you of the problems and the awful pain of those years. How complicated those problems are, and how difficult it is to determine a path through them. But you’re also reminded, by these brave and humble protagonists, of the grace it’s possible to achieve….These are thoughtful, lovely stories, gracefully written and a pleasurable to read.” –Roxana Robinson
“Bauman’s stories remind us that girls can be beautiful not just for their physical attributes, but for their fighting spirits.” —Newsday
“These stories are wonderfully crafted. The tight prose cuts like a surgical knife into the lives of the characters and gives us an anatomy lesson in the human heart. The endings are especially strong and, like the last lines of great poems, shine a light that illuminates the whole of the stories. Beautiful Girls is a beautiful collection.” —Sun-Sentinel
“Beautiful Girls, a collection of short stories about all kinds of girls, is an amazing read. I fell in love with every brilliantly, humanly flawed character. Gorgeous!” —Bust
“Promising vision and a powerful start.” —Kirkus Reviews
Beth Ann Bauman 
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