Famous Men

by Julie Buntin

From the acclaimed author of the “wild, gorgeous” (San Francisco Chronicle) Marlena comes a novel about a young woman looking for a father and finding herself—a vivid, uncompromising exploration of sex, money, power, and art.

The right book at the right time can change your life.

Will Miles is trapped. Trapped in tiny Greening, Michigan, where a toxic high school rumor has turned her into a social exile. Trapped in the predictable routines of her mother, and under the unrelenting gaze of her mother’s increasingly sinister boyfriend. But when Will stumbles across the early poems of Nathaniel Fellow, a famous writer forty years her senior who also grew up in Greening, she feels she’s found a kindred spirit. A passing comment from her mother only adds to Will’s fascination: Is Nathaniel the father she’s never known?

Will orchestrates a plan to track Nathaniel down, following in his footsteps to New York City, where she learns he’s not the answer to her past, not the way she imagined. But their meeting sparks a complicated, consuming relationship that gives Will sidelong access to a world she’s only ever imagined: of writers and intellectuals, a financial safety net, and, most intoxicatingly, a glimpse into her own potential. But who is Nathaniel Fellow, off the page? And what will shaping her life to suit his cost her? When a torrent of information about his past threatens not just her life with Nathaniel, but the story she tells herself about him, Will is faced with a choice that will change everything.

A gripping novel about ambition, parents and children, and all the ways women still pay for men’s mistakes, Famous Men traces one woman’s journey to the truth of where she comes from, what she’s capable of, and how she might start again.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, Adult Fiction

400 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication July 14, 2026

About the author

Julie Buntin's new novel, Famous Men, is forthcoming from Random House in July. She's also the author of Marlena (Holt, 2017) - a finalist for the NBCC John Leonard Prize - and the co-editor of Notes to New Mothers, a collection of dispatches from postpartum life by sixty writers and artists. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Harper’s, Vogue, and the New York Times, and has been supported by the MacDowell Colony, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the New York Community Trust. Formerly an editor and director of writing programs at Catapult, she’s an assistant professor of English at the University of Michigan, and has taught creative writing at NYU, Columbia University, Marymount Manhattan College, and the Yale Writer's Workshop.

Reviews

[cyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review. I get what this book was attempting to do but it really missed to mark for me. Nothing really happens in this book and it’s a lot of random events that hold no significance to the main plot in my opinion. The point the author was trying to make about me too was clear but that doesn’t mean this was entertaining or engaging to read. I honestly found myself very bored with everything happening and this book didn’t say anything new or interesting about the me too movement. It started out with so much promise but I honestly should have just dnfed this.

[Christopher Febles · Rating 4 out of 5]

ADVANCE REVIEW COPY: EXPECTED RELEASE 14 JULY 2026

Wilhelmina (Will for short) grew up in a single parent home in the tiny town of Greening, Michigan. Her mom was (and still is) the cafeteria chief at a boarding school there. During Will’s early adolescent years, she becomes enthralled with the poetry of Nathaniel Fellow, himself a Greening product and now a famous, award-winning author. Her mother mentions an encounter with Nathaniel when she was young, a passing comment that leads Will to ponder whether he’s the father she never knew.

Will goes a little adrift in her teenage and community college years, but when she gets accepted to a small college in New York City, she sees a chance to connect with Nathaniel. He teaches at a major university nearby, and through a little quiet networking, she makes her way into his poetry workshop. Eventually she makes an impression on Nathaniel and becomes his assistant…and maybe more.



It might be best to summarize what happens next with a focus on Will’s two main desires: to become a poet / author / artist, and to discover whether Nathaniel is really her father. The pursuit of both leads her down some icky but meaningful and thoughtful paths. From the outside, you might judge her life as her friends do: what is she doing with this guy? Why is she languishing in a crummy job without health insurance, accepting pay in the form of his credit card, living in his apartment or a sublet studio in the West Village? It’s easy to feel for her, stubbornly in search of something to give her life substance.

See, Will’s early life involves not just the mystery of her father’s identity. She was also shamed in her early high school years for having allegedly engaged in loose activity with a boy at a barn party. She spent those years getting ridiculed and even abused by kids for that fateful night. It hurt her maybe even more than she leads on in her first-person wonderings. Thus, the novel is essentially a journey through Will’s search for an identity.

The central setting for this journey isn’t just New York; it’s Nathaniel’s poetry workshop. Buntin tells us in her Acknowledgements (yes, I almost always read them) that workshopping was an inspiration for her. Thus, Will’s side-door entry into the group of poets and writers is where she grows as an artist, a friend, even a lover. It’s not just the mechanics of writing, however: it’s emotional, tense, even nasty at times. But it’s tight-knit and serious for the participants.

A big side-theme here is the #metoo movement. As Will ages and gets increasingly involved with Nathaniel, other famous men are exposed for their abuses and even crimes. He might be one of them, which makes her relationship with him even more complicated. Go ahead and say you saw it coming with his borderline creepy behavior midway through the novel, but consider Will’s fragile ego. Would we really have expected her to storm out and join the protest line? No, and credit to Buntin for making this situation opaque and gray. Yes, she’s clearly disgusted by the activities of the #metoo men out there, but Will seems in-between, caught between what’s right and what she wants for herself (which itself is murky and ever-changing).

Now, a novel of self-discovery can’t be expected to be a page-turning thriller. The literary setting begets a work of literary consideration. So, the action is slow, deliberate, and heady. Four hundred pages is quite a bit, and all that thinking and flashbacking takes time. Just know what you’re getting into here: it’s meant to be savored and considered.

The writing is crisp and the character development exquisite and expertly done. Buntin has written a strong work of literature involving a very interesting protagonist in a unique situation.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review. Famous Men will be released July 14, 2026.

[H · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been a fan of Julie Buntin's since she was publishing essays in Explosion Proof. Her first novel, Marlena, is one of my favorite novels of the century. But she outdoes herself in Famous Men, one of the most ambitious and satisfying novels about the real cost of making art that I've ever read. This novel takes its reader seriously. It is completely unafraid, drifting into thorny moral territory to pose provocative questions that readers are asked to consider for themselves. It's also written with sterling stylistic precision and is genuinely moving. I think it's a true artistic achievement, and a book that I feel lucky to have read.

[Patty Ramirez · Rating 4 out of 5]

We've read this story before, so there were not really any "gasp out loud" moments for me, but I thoroughly the writing on this.

Even though I knew exactly where this was going most of the time, and the ending was not surprising, I found myself not being able to put this one down.

Thank you to Hogarth and the author for providing a free copy of this book through NetGalley.

[Amie Mak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Famous Men is the story of Wilhelmina a small town girl raised by her single mother. After a traumatic incident in high school, she finds solace in the words of a poet named Nathaniel Fellow. The mystery deepens when Wil discovers that her mother actually met the poet one night in her early twenties. Desperate to uncover the identity of her father, Wil begins to suspect that Fellow might be the man she’s been looking for, which draws her into his orbit.

She finds her life intertwined with Nathaniel’s and they enter into a complex relationship. The reader grows with Wil as she works towards finding her voice and comes to terms with the traumas that shaped her.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for providing an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Verdict:
Rating: ⭐️⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Buy/Borrow/Skip- Buy, the writing is so compelling and the author explores difficult topics with a deft hand.
Read if you like: Coming of age stories with complex power dynamics and one’s search for identity

[Keles Wyntor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an advanced reader copy from NetGalley.

I was really drawn to the premise of this book. As a Midwest girl who at time felt trapped in her small town before eventually leaving, I think it’s easy to latch on to an idea of what could be out there. I think following the path of someone who could be her father is a great beginning to a chaotic adventure. Once I started reading the book I really appreciated how gripping the story was. I think Wills relationship with her mother was very real. I often blamed my mother for things I did not fully understand at a similar time in my life. Watching will work her way through things at times was a bit difficult, but I think that added to what this book was exploring. I am in a different side of the art world, but it has the exact same dynamic, so I found it to be an honest reflection of what it’s like to be a woman in the art world. A very thought provoking read!

[Nancy Graben · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not all men, but all women experience something like this.

The feelings of Willhelmina are so raw and her guilt and complicit behaviors are so heartbreaking.

What happens to her at the end. Does she keep the child? Does she tell Nathaniel? Does she tell the truth and implicate him?

Oh, the questions I have.

[Chelsea Bieker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where to begin. If you loved Marlena (and who didn’t) then you will love this book. It feels connected tonally and yet it’s also a major departure into the slippery territory of literary success and the true cost of imbalance of power over a lifetime. I think what this book did SO brilliantly was show the very way consent, desire, and ambition cannot be simplified. Or at least Buntin refused to simplify it, which is why the book rings so absolutely true. At one point, a character describes a story as feeling like it’s talking directly to them—and that was exactly the sensation I felt while reading. I felt a deep, disorienting sense of recognition. This is a novel that understands power—not just in its most visible forms, but in its subtler, more insidious permutations. The way admiration can blur into devotion. The way attention can feel like oxygen. And the way a young writer, especially a young woman, can mistake being chosen for being loved.

What Famous Men makes clear is that once those boundaries blur, everything becomes entangled. Not just in the moment, but for years. Possibly forever.

So many of us, I think, can count our own versions of those figures who shaped us in ways we’re still metabolizing. And there’s a reckoning with how much of girlhood involves learning to survive these dynamics, often without language for them at the time.

What I loved most beyond the beautiful writing, is that Famous Men does not flatten these experiences into easy moral binaries. Instead, it lingers in the uneasy terrain of consent, choice, agency—asking what those words even mean when power is unevenly distributed from the start. Will is such a precise and compelling voice throughout, and the emotional architecture of the book is extraordinary. The tenderness between her and the man in question, an older and lauded professor, is rendered with such care, and it’s exactly that tenderness that sharpens the more difficult questions the novel asks. Nothing is isolated; everything is in conversation.

[Snarky Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy. I really, really, really wanted to love this book, because I loved Marlena. Readers of Marlena will notice the similarities: a female protagonist from small town Michigan, who dreams of being a writer, and moves to NYC. A fraught relationship with the working-class mother. I enjoyed reading it and becoming immersed in Will's world.

At the same time, if you lived through 2016-2018, you might feel like you've already read this story. There is momentum building through hinting at Lili's piece, through the mystery of Gerry (never revealed), through some assumed break in Will's relationship with Nathaniel, but it is anticlimactic when it finally happens, and I was left wondering how Will felt about leaving, and what led her to finally leave. But maybe these lingering questions are what makes this book an excellent bookclub choice.

The characters felt flat. Lili too perfect, Reg boringly unoffensive. The best chapter was the list of things Nathaniel said. This finally gives the reader a glimpse of his spark, his draw, his flaws. I wish this came earlier. Will is such a passive character-- maybe the point, but not a likable nor unlikeable character- kind of confident yet bland - and I didn't feel myself rooting for her. Nathaniel was believable, but Will maybe less so.

There was too much happening-- the Reg romance, the high school scenes, the mother-daughter rift, the Tray story, the Benji character/the teaching at Rosendale plotline. The twist was predictable and felt rushed, like it was added at the last minute. And why does the voice suddenly switch into second person for one chapter?

Again, these might be purposeful choices for ambiguity, but for me it lacked a certain crispness and the messy yet believable, complicated characters of Marlena.

[Diana Stefancu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to get an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

I read the synopsis and some reviews and was pretty clear on the storyline. Somehow, I feel I was misled.

The story starts of giving us some context into the life of Will, a girl who has a lot of things happen to her, yet she’s written pretty passive to all of it. Quite similarly to the MMC in “Flesh” by David Szalay.

All her actions are directed towards the main goal of her life, meeting the man she thinks is her father.

*SPOILER*

Pretty soon after moving to NYC she discovers her premise was wrong, the man isn’t really her father and this is where there’s a huge disconnect for me. Not only does she not consider changing her initial plans, but she diggs herself deeper into this life.

I understand the whole “poet /artist life” and her pursuit of that, I even put a lot of her inactions to things happening to her onto her “daddy issues”. Still, I find so much of the writing was pointless, didn’t serve the plot (no matter how weak it may be), didn’t help characterize her more or better. I kept waiting for a revelation, not necessarily some big plot twist or reveal, just something that would show her feeling something, anything at all!

The fact that she’s so serving of Nathaniel and others and all of their needs, the fact that she’s such a “yes” person, I could live with all of that as her characteristics IF ONLY she would show some sort of emotion about these things..if the author would show her being tired of doing it, or worried about losing herself in all of it, just SOMETHING!

A lot of people gave 4 star ratings so I’m assuming I’m a minority in thinking all this:)

[Susan Poer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wilhelmina is having a difficult time. Being raised by a single mom in a small town where everyone knows your business, surely has not helped. After years of being ostracized by her peers and living under the uneasy dynamics of her household, Will finds an unlikely escape through the early poems of Nathaniel Fellow, a writer decades her senior who once lived in the same town. Convinced he might even be the father she never knew, Will sets off for New York City, to find answers about her family and to redefine her identity and future.

When she eventually meets Nathaniel, she doesn’t find the parental figure she imagined, but begins to enter into a complex and consuming relationship with him that blurs the boundaries between mentor er and friend. Nathaniel’s world offers Will access to intellectual circles, financial stability, and the promise of transformation, yet it also entangles her in a dynamic where power and control are constantly shifting. As revelations about Nathaniel’s past unfold, Will must reckon not only with who he really is, but with how much of her own story she is willing to surrender.

This is a well written, slow paced character study about the sacrafices one makes for the sake of art. Nathaniel is very successful, but at what price? The author does a great job showing how May/December relationships can be influenced by social capital, cultural influence, and psychological dependence. Will Will make these types of sacrafices in order to obtain success? Read on and you'll find out!

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to the publisher for providing a copy of the book for review. Willhelmina, a transplant to New York City, arrives with the dream of becoming a writer and the hope of finding her father. She pursues a well-known writer, becoming his assistant and, inevitably, his lover. Famous Men explores the dynamics between men and women, which has been done before. What makes this book compelling is the narrator’s commitment to her version of the narrative. She recognizes the predatory habits of men in her past but is willing to overlook her much older lover’s many faults–because, she tells herself, she is really the one using him. And perhaps she is using him–for rent, a salary, easy mediocre sex, connections, just as he is enjoying her availability and hero-worship. She walls herself off so completely from anyone who could offer her a different perspective; even her “friends” seem to know very little about her. It’s this ill-advised self-protection and isolation that stop Will from maturing. When she finally leaves the professor, in the wake of an “Me Too” article about him, it feels like she’s still acting the part that she thinks she is supposed to play in her story.
This isn’t necessarily a book to enjoy; it’s no fast-paced beach read. Instead, if you need a reminder that most of us don’t grow up all at once, that we can incrementally wake up from the stories we tell ourselves, that not all relationships are good or bad but somewhere in a murky fog–that’s what this book is for.

[Tess · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love Julie Buntin’s latest novel FAMOUS MEN because I adored her debut, and most of the book takes place at a university I know well, with characters that I can picture in my head at the drop of a hat. It’s an interesting take on the Me Too movement, with a “literary manager” Willehemina enmeshed in the life of a uber-famous author and professor. All Will wants to do is become a poet, and as she discovers Nathaniel Fellow, an alum of the boarding school her mother works at at a young age, she decides to move to NYC with one goal: to learn how to write from him. This is despite not even applying to the college he works at.

The story webs and weaves through how Fellow takes Will under his wing and a relationship blossoms. Oh, I forgot that she also thinks he may be her dad! Look, there is a lot to this plot and I appreciated Buntin’s expansive ideas, but I don’t think she brings anything new to the table here and honestly, it was just super depressing. Will is not a character I liked and seemed like one of those characters that annoy me in fiction lately: a character who things only happen to, who don’t have a distinct voice, and therefore makes it hard to root for them. There is no light or humor in this book, and while there doesn’t necessarily have to be, it just made this 400 page book a slog to get through at times. I hoped for better, even though I by no means hated it. Just not one I will remember for very long.

[Kate Struthers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel explores the familiar theme of power imbalance in a way that still felt gripping and emotionally immersive. While the protagonist, sometimes felt underdeveloped, this seemed partly intentional and i think it reflected her claustrophobic life in Michigan and limited life experience. Because of this, her dialogue occasionally felt unnatural, and at times the writing could have been a little sharper, with certain points feeling heavy handed.

Despite that, the story completely held my attention from beginning to end and I felt completely immersed in it. The pacing felt perfect, and several stylistic choices added real depth and impact to the narrative. I found myself reaching for it first thing in the morning and staying up too late to finish it. I was left with some questions at the end-not in a frustrating way but ones that pushed me to think more deeply.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[twoey (rachel q.) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oftentimes, stories like this, being tales of influential men behaving badly, can be triggering and hard to read. For them to work, the author needs to be able to dissect these stories with a fine-toothed comb, and say something new. Bunting accomplishes this in Famous Men, taking the story of an uneven power dynamic and letting it slowly fill you with dread and anxiety. By the end of the book, you are forced to reevaluate everything you have just read, with Nathaniel's transgressions becoming more and more apparent as Will grows older and wiser.

Will is a character you can't help but root for, despite her misguided decisions, as I think every young woman in the arts has had a more or less comparable situation with a man in power. Bravo to Buntin for writing this engaging and thought-provoking piece, it's well-done commentary on the Me Too era with a strong voice to go with it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

[James B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for the ebook. Will Miles has a toxic life in high school and things are only marginally better at home. She becomes obsessed with the poet Nathaniel Fellow, who grew up in her hometown. She makes her way to New York City and quickly meets Nathaniel, just as his current assistant is leaving him, and somehow falls into working for him. And then starts an education on two levels, a talented writer taking you under his wing to truly make you a better writer, but also comes the education of the imbalance of power. A rich older man offering to share small parts of his life for almost no salary and, most troubling, questions of intimacy. Will publishes a novel and seems to be on a very different road just as the Me Too movement comes to life and the whispers of Nathaniel’s past are given more light. A fascinating look at desire of all types.

[Katrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Famous Men by Julie Bunton is a striking character study of ambition and privilege. While the narrative follows Wilhelmina Miles’s coming-of-age, its true strength lies in how her various relationships—ranging from a "tale as old as time" with Nathaniel to the complex one with her mother (Mary) and Lilli—act as mirrors to her evolving identity. I was particularly captivated by the contrast between Will and Lilli; seeing how financial insecurity forces one to make concessions while wealth allows the other to maintain a rigid moral high ground is a profound exploration of how "survivorship" dictates our boundaries. Wilhelmina is a character who will stay with me for a long time.


I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher. My review is voluntary and reflects my honest opinion.

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

OOH. So, I wish this was not an advance readers copy I am reviewing because this book has made me think and I want to talk about it (and I am doing that). It's about a girl raised by a single mom in rural Michigan who doesn't know her dad's identity but becomes kind of fixated on the work of town's famous son (an acclaimed poet, author and screenwriter) and thinks it might be him. She quickly makes her way to New York to pursue her own dream of being a writer and meets the author and becomes his literary assistant. But it's way more complicated than that. The book makes you think about the power dynamics of mentorship, particularly between men and women and in the arts sector. What is acceptable, what are the parameters and who decides? Sometimes this book felt a little slow-paced and the end was not as satisfying as I hoped for but a very solid and intriguing read. Recommended!

[Ellen Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely enjoy this author as it is but after reading this book, I’m in awe. This story swept me away. I was hooked to every single word. The relationship between Will and Nathaniel was intense, frustrating, and yet fascinating. I was torn between emotions. I loved Will so much but there were times I was upset with her yet I was constantly reminded that she is relatable because she is still finding her way in the world. This book has a relatable theme of speaking out against men with fame or power and that is such an important thing for women today. This is a treasure of a book that is heartbreaking, empowering, and realistically raw. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Rachel Martinez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a free copy of this book via Goodreads giveaway.

Wow. Sometimes I really struggle to enjoy books about glossy industries I’m not a part of — Hollywood, the publishing world, etc. — but this book is so much more than a story about writers. This book is about womanhood, mother-daughter relationships, sexuality, power, and the complexity and gray areas involved with all of these things. You can cringe at and hate the choices the main character makes while also seeing how easily you yourself could choose to do the exact same thing. The author does a fantastic job creating real, flawed and imperfect characters. Loved it

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 I feel like I spent literal years following Will’s story. There isn’t a sense of urgency at any point, and she takes almost no action aside from buying specific expensive groceries. I don’t care that Nathaniel is supposedly a great poet. He is a huge ick. All the men in the book are. The fact that these icky men are able to wither into old age and never face consequences is for real life (i.e. we get enough of this irl), and not what I wish to read in fiction. Will didn’t even have active emotions.

I got this as an eARC from NetGalley and Random House. Pub date July 14

[Kimberly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-written novel with compelling characters. The title and the cover made me assume it was about a relationship with a predatory man, but I was surprised to find it was a father-daughter story that tackles the dynamics of ambition and parenthood. I feel like I haven’t seen a lot of books like this and I want more.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the ARC.

[Katie Devine · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible novel that explores art and privilege, power and misogyny, and the often impossible choices that some people are forced to make to save themselves. As it did in Marlena, Buntin's prose and characters captivate and make her second novel a must read of 2026.

[Julia Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blown away by what Julie Buntin has done here: fraught, complicated, uncomfortable, incredibly and unputdownably compelling

[Jodi Schulz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. I wanted to like this more than I did, way too long, full of unlikeable characters, and seemed to be making the same point over and over again.