Goodreads Choice Awards Finalists 2025
Lucy Ellmann

Lucy Ellmann’s Followers (388)

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Lucy Ellmann


Born
in The United States
October 18, 1956

Genre
Literature & Fiction


Lucy Ellmann was born in Evanston, Illinois, the daughter of biographer Richard Ellmann and writer Mary Ellmann (née Donahue). She moved to England at the age of 13 and was educated at Falmouth School of Art (Foundation degree, 1975), Essex University (BA, 1980), and the Courtauld Institute of Art (MA, 1981).

Her highly-praised autobiographical first novel, Sweet Desserts, was awarded the Guardian Fiction Prize. Both her second book, Varying Degrees of Hoplessness, and her third, Man or Mango?, were shortlisted for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, while her fourth, Dot in the Universe, was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Believer Book Award.

Lucy Ellmann is a regular contributor of articles on art and f ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 3.84 · 8,104 ratings · 2,107 reviews · 18 distinct works • Similar authors
Ducks, Newburyport
3.97 avg rating — 5,807 ratings — published 2019 — 30 editions
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Man or Mango?
3.35 avg rating — 450 ratings — published 1998 — 16 editions
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Mimi
3.23 avg rating — 437 ratings — published 2013 — 9 editions
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Dot in the Universe
3.68 avg rating — 382 ratings — published 2003 — 9 editions
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Things Are Against Us
3.55 avg rating — 380 ratings — published 2021 — 19 editions
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Sweet Desserts
3.33 avg rating — 234 ratings — published 1989 — 13 editions
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Varying Degrees of Hopeless...
3.81 avg rating — 168 ratings — published 1991 — 10 editions
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Doctors & Nurses
3.25 avg rating — 100 ratings — published 2006 — 9 editions
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Tom the Obscure
3.87 avg rating — 15 ratings — published 2014
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There’s No Ifs or Maybes, I...
3.33 avg rating — 3 ratings
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More books by Lucy Ellmann…

Related News

  When it comes to retellings of literary classics, there are the books that follow the original tales closely (think 2018's smash...
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75 likes · 13 comments
Quotes by Lucy Ellmann  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“the fact that you’ll never know what sort of person you might have been if you’d read different stuff”
― Lucy Ellmann, Ducks, Newburyport
tags: books, cultural-influences, reading
24 likes
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“The whole world organizes itself around the fact that people manage to get their awkward bodies in position to fuck, an achievement honored by toasters, tandems, and tax cuts.”
― Lucy Ellmann, Dot in the Universe
22 likes
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“GENERAL STATEMENT FOR ALL CONCERNED: I do not wish you to be perturbed in any way by my current uncommunicative behaviour. I wish it to be known that I am not pursuing any friendships at the moment because I can not think of anything to say and I suspect I am bad for people. I am too egotistically involved in my own decay to focus on the troubles and triumphs of others...”
― Lucy Ellmann, Man or Mango?
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Polls

What will be our next group read? Note that a vote here implies a willingness to participate in the discussion if the book you vote for wins the poll.

 
  4 votes, 33.3%

 
  3 votes, 25.0%

 
  2 votes, 16.7%

 
  1 vote, 8.3%

 
  1 vote, 8.3%

 
  1 vote, 8.3%

12 total votes
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Topics Mentioning This Author

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500 Great Books B...: This topic has been closed to new comments. Decades, Centuries, and Millenia 8 406 Dec 06, 2014 09:46PM  
Crazy Challenge C...: E authors 16 203 Jul 29, 2018 07:51PM  
500 Great Books B...: Submissions 299 425 Mar 13, 2019 04:25AM  
Play Book Tag: Booker Longlist 2019 41 48 Jul 30, 2019 03:24PM  
The Mookse and th...: This topic has been closed to new comments. 2019 Booker Longlist Dynamic Rankings 62 261 Sep 02, 2019 03:36PM  
The Mookse and th...: This topic has been closed to new comments. 2019 Booker Prize - Shortlist Predictions 37 131 Sep 03, 2019 12:15AM  


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