From one of America’s greatest and most iconic writers: an honest and courageous portrait of age and motherhood.

Richly textured with bits of her own childhood and married life with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and daughter, Quintana Roo, this new book by Joan Didion examines her thoughts, fears, and doubts regarding having children, illness, and growing old.

Blue Nights opens on July 26, 2010, as Didion thinks back to Quintana’s wedding in New York seven years before. Today would be her wedding anniversary. This fact triggers vivid snapshots of Quintana’s childhood — in Malibu, in Brentwood, at school in Holmby Hills. Reflecting on her daughter but also on her role as a parent, Didion asks the candid questions any parent might about how she feels she failed either because cues were not taken or perhaps displaced. ‘How could I have missed what was clearly there to be seen?’ Finally, perhaps we all remain unknown to each other.

Blue Nights — the long, light evening hours that signal the summer solstice, ‘the opposite of the dying of the brightness, but also its warning’ — like The Year of Magical Thinking before it, is an iconic book of incisive and electric honesty.

‘This is a beautiful and devastating book by one of the finest writers we have’ Zadie Smith

‘Searing, informative and affecting. Don’t leave life without it.’ Financial Times

*Notes to John, the remarkable recently discovered journal from Joan Didion is available now*

In Blue Nights, Joan Didion, one of America's top literary figures, presents a biography that is as much an autobiography, a raw and unflinching exploration of the best and worst of motherhood. The fear of loss, the pain of memory, and the courage to face mortality are themes that resonate universally, making this book a groundbreaking addition to her stunning career.

For fans of Alissa Wilkinson (We Tell Ourselves Stories), Griffin Dunne (The Friday Afternoon Club), Sylvia Plath (Sylvia Plath Poems Chosen by Carol Ann Duffy), Patti Smith (Year of the Monkey), and Deborah Levy (The Position of Spoons).