Lonely Crowds

Wambugu debuts with a resonant coming-of-age novel about the complicated interplay between friendship and artistic ambition. Growing up in Pawtucket, R.I., Ruth and Maria are two of the only Black girls at their Catholic school. Ruth, the daughter of emotionally distant Kenyan immigrants, is immediately drawn to Maria, whose beauty and charisma glimmer despite her troubled home life: “I was struck by two things: her dirtiness and her tremendous confidence.” Throughout their school years, Ruth clings to Maria’s coattails, eventually following her to Bard College, where they study art and plot how they’ll become famous—Ruth as a painter and Maria as a filmmaker. After graduation, they both move to New York City, where Maria finds success, while Ruth struggles with self-doubt about whether she can ever become an artist and jealousy toward the increasingly distant and manipulative Maria. An older, more established Ruth recalls these youthful experiences, and her first-person narration is suitably reflective and, at times, regretful and even melancholy. It’s an understated portrait of an artist learning how to come into her own. Agent: PJ Mark, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (July)