Hidden River

by Sara Lippmann

Thirty-five year old Cassandra (aka Cass, Cassie, Cassidy, and Cassiopeia) Trout is going nowhere fast. Stuck in her hometown of Philadelphia, she spends her lackluster days working retail and running, and then rinse, repeat. But a surprise wedding invitation from an estranged childhood friend is set to change all that.



Sally Sellers has made it big in London and is eager to flesh out her guest list. Cass and Sally were once inseparable, sharing everything from boys to beds. But secrets polluted their friendship—particularly Cass's illicit entanglement with Sally's father, Len, which began in adolescence, and ended with his untimely death. Will the wedding finally force Cass to reckon with her painful, hidden past? Can she heal well enough to truly grow into her own adulthood? And what does healing look like when the most damaging memories are also the ones that last?



Sara Lippmann’s Hidden River is an unforgettable masterwork by a writer at the top of her game. With a timeline that toggles between the summer of 2008 and the late 80s/early 90s, this lean but bold novel casts an intimate look at grooming in the era before #metoo. A fascinating blend of tragedy and dark comedy, a work of brutal emotional truths unearthed with lightness and grace, this exquisitely charged story, at once private and political, will linger in your mind—and earn a place in your heart.

Genres: Fiction

244 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 5, 2026

About the author

Sara Lippmann is the author of the novels Lech and Hidden River and the story collections Doll Palace and Jerks. Her fiction has won the Lilith Fiction Prize and has been honored by the New York Foundation for the Arts, and her essays have appeared in The Millions, The Washington Post, Lit Hub, and elsewhere. With Seth Rogoff, she co-edited the anthology Smashing the Tablets: Radical Retellings of the Hebrew Bible. She is a co-founder of Writing Co-lab, an artist-run online teaching cooperative, and the editor in chief of Epiphany magazine. She lives in Brooklyn.

Reviews

[ambersometimesreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

as soon as i heard this was a book for people who read my dark vanessa, i was intrigued. this book follows a 16 year old girl, who is groomed by her best friends father. obviously that’s a tough topic to write and talk about because I will never say I ‘LOVED’ a book like that.

while my dark vanessa more so puts you in the actual s*xual moments and r*pe scenes, this book steers clear of the very descriptive aspects, which I appreciate. since it doesn’t fully take you into the fmc’s head though, I couldn’t tell for like 60% of the book is this book was trying to shed light on how problematic the relationship was or if it was glamorizing it. by the end, it was thankfully obvious that the fmc was starting to realize the older man was not a good person.

however, I do wish there was more justice for the fmc. I wish she TRULY realized how horrible the situation was, instead of only just starting to question it. I also wonder if he was ever like that with his daughter and think that was a topic that should’ve been discussed. I was really hoping she was going to confide in the daughter. since the whole plot of this book is her attending her wedding, I think it was a missed opportunity and discussion for her to tell her childhood best friend who her dad really was/see if she already knew

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the way this was written. It does cover a tough topic, but I appreciate that it steered away from being graphic! Interesting read!

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sara Lippmann works her magic in the beautiful prose that is Hidden River, a book that situates itself meaningfully into our cultural moment where women like Gisel Pelicot and the victims of Jeffrey Epstein must become heroes even when they most certainly only wanted to live unmolested and unknown in their normal lives. As a sort of reverse telling of Lolita from the girl's point of view, this subtly told story of grooming is an unfolding horror show with so much left unsaid, the silence nearly explodes off the page. Lippmann has found the right tone and angle in her devastating resonse to Nabokov. Of the two books, Lolita or Hidden River, I much prefer Hidden River.

[Anna Persky]

Review to follow.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cassie is the daughter of an unmoored mother, the victim of unresolved childhood sexual trauma by her best friend’s father, a carrier of secrets and pain, and completely unable to find herself in a world that often abandons her. Her receipt of a destination wedding invitation from her former bestie leads her needing to confront her past and the scars she bears.

Lippmann’s skillful prose creates an engrossing, if painful, journey for her protagonist as well as for her readers. It would be inappropriate to say I enjoyed this read, but I certainly appreciated it. What a sad life so many are forced to lead.

[Zeeva Bukai · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved, loved this book. Sara Lippmann's "Hidden River," broke my heart and pieced it back together. Her writing is both exquisite and ferocious. She is a master of the art, each sentence thoughtfully composed, layered with emotional depth, revealing each character with nuance, especially Cass, the protagonist. You can't help rooting for her. Groomed from an early age, Cass is a reflection of what can happen to girls and the trauma that sexual abuse inflicts. Ultimately, she is a reflection of the times we live in. Lippmann has done an incredible job highlighting, with such delicacy, how vulnerable we all are, how the world can wound us, and how we heal.

[Summer · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up // an interesting read! There honestly wasn’t too much to this plot wise and was definitely a character study, but it touched on a sensitive topic without being over the top in graphic details. It was also just so crazy because I also live in Philly (down to the NEIGHBORHOOD), am a Scorpio Sun/Taurus Moon, and also had to wait 3 days before adopting an animal literally this year, so it really felt like I was getting a glimpse at an alternate reality to my life.

Overall, a quick and interesting in depth character analysis story that was well written and captivating enough that I was able to blast through this in a day

[Kari Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Breathtaking work from fearless writer Sara Lippmann. Hidden River is a novel of deep insight that navigates hidden trauma in brilliantly rendered flashbacks which haunt all the more for their ties to recorded tragedies unfolding alongside. Devastating, tender, and comic, this book unsettles with the truth and power of Cass’s world made exquisitely real. I loved this book for everything it is, told by Cass in her voice, her way, her story; I can’t stop thinking about Cass and all the people she’s loved. Hidden River is a coming-of-age tale we desperately need.

[Jeff Bond · Rating 5 out of 5]

I devoured this book. It gets everything about my Gen X childhood exactly right, from the unsupervised basements, the normalization of sexualizing children, and the crazy idea that us kids were somehow going to come through it all fine. Cass is a deeply realized protagonist, very recognizably human. The whole book is unflinching, and the yet ending is handled with restraint. Read this if you want to better understand your Gen X parent, child, friend, whoever. There's a reason we see the world with lonely eyes.

[Elisa Winokur · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved everything about this book. No one captures the deep flaws of humanity better than Sara Lippmann. In her brilliant prose, she exposes the darkness that lurks beneath the facade of any American suburb. She nails every sentence.  A master of language, detail and character, she perfectly depicts the teenage years of suburban Gen Xers. I love Cass and I'm rooting for her. Ah child of boundless seas....

[Sarah Holloway · Rating 5 out of 5]

You'll want to read this when it is published in May!

[Shayne Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Signature Lippmann! Fearlessly handles the complicated underbelly of human relationships, prose like an x-acto knife. Highly recommend.

[Carol Ann Tack · Rating 4 out of 5]

My goodness, this book comes at you like a storm and before you know it, you’re swept away. I loved it.

[Rachael Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant.

[Carrie Esposito · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible story of a young woman reckoning with herself and her past & the nuances we prefer to look away from.

[Meryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful writing with wholly original metaphors and descriptions. I appreciate the nuanced depiction of complicated love.

[Caleb Michael Sarvis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sara Lippmann has been on my radar for a little while thanks to mutual writer friends, and I'm glad I finally made an effort to read some of her work.

Hidden River is a gem. I will think about the structure of this book for a while, its seamless slips through time, and the full-bodied hurt that tows underneath.

Sara is a fantastic writer, one acute to human weirdness, and I'm sorry it took me this long to give her a read!

[Rachel León · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set in the summer of 2008 with flashbacks from the late 80s/ early 90s, Hidden River is an unsentimental atmospheric exploration of trauma, grooming, gender and power dynamics consent, and memory written with Lippmann’s singular voice.

[Sara]

this is my book. i wrote it. i’ll rate it.