The Virgin Suicides

First published in 1993, The Virgin Suicides announced the arrival of a major new American novelist. In a quiet suburb of Detroit, the five Lisbon sisters-beautiful, eccentric, and obsessively watched by the neighborhood boys-commit suicide one by one over the course of a single year. As the boys observe them from afar, transfixed, they piece together the mystery of the family’s fatal melancholy, in this hypnotic and unforgettable novel of adolescent love, disquiet, and death. Jeffrey Eugenides evokes the emotions of youth with haunting sensitivity and dark humor and creates a coming-of-age story unlike any of our time. Adapted into a critically acclaimed film by Sofia Coppola, The Virgin Suicides is a modern classic, a lyrical and timeless tale of sex and suicide that transforms and mythologizes suburban middle-American life.

For more than twenty years, Picador has been producing beautifully packaged literary fiction and nonfiction books from Manhattan’s Flatiron Building. Our Twentieth Anniversary Modern Classics line pairs iconic books – The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides, Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse, Jesus’ Son by Denis Johnson, and Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson – with a design that’s both small enough to fit in your pocket and unique enough to stand out on your bookshelf.