Clutch A Novel

By: Emily Nemens

Published by Zando, 2026-02-03

<b>Emily Nemens's <i>Clutch</i> follows a group of five women, friends for twenty years, as they go through the biggest challenges of their lives, asking: When you're hanging on by your fingernails, how can you extend a hand to the ones you love?</b><br> <br> As undergrads, Reba, Hillary, Carson, Gregg, and Bella formed the kind of rare bond that college brochures promise--friendship that <i>lasts a lifetime</i>. Two decades later, the women are spread across the country but remain firmly tethered through their ever-unfurling group chat. They've made it through COVID and childbirth and midcareer challenges, but no one can anticipate what's coming down the pike. <br> <br> The five women converge on Palm Springs for a long overdue reunion: Gregg, who has forged a path as a progressive Texas legislator, is facing a huge decision about her political future. Reba, who moved back to the Bay Area after decades away, is deep in IVF treatments while caring for her aging parents and navigating a San Francisco she hardly recognizes. Hillary's medical career in Chicago is going great--but at home, her husband's struggles with addiction have derailed their life. In New York City, Bella faces the biggest case in her career as a litigator while her home life crumbles around her, and across the river in Brooklyn, Carson is working on a new novel as well as forging a possible relationship with the father she's never met.<br> <br> Twenty years into their shared friendship, the stakes are higher than ever, and they must help one another reconcile professional ambition with personal tumult. <i>Clutch</i> is a big, beautiful, and deeply absorbing novel that asks how much space and heart we can give to our friends and our families, and what space we can save for ourselves.