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Other Women
After dropping out of college, a young woman wanders through New York both invisible and vulnerable, studying the city’s strong magic and longing for a man she knows will never love her back. She thinks she finds salvation when Charlotte Herzfeld, the young wife of a successful businessman, hires her as a live-in nanny to accompany the family on their trip to Berlin. As the Herzfelds begin to crack under the weight of their secrets, she finds herself in a more precarious position than ever before. Both thoughtful and restrained, Goldberg’s prose examines the painful obsession that so often accompanies the confusing lust of youth.
168 pages, Paperback
Published November 28, 2016
2 people are currently reading
581 people want to read
About the author
Nicola Maye Goldberg
11 books157 followersNicola Maye Goldberg is the author of NOTHING CAN HURT YOU (Bloomsbury, 2020). She lives in New York City.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
March 23, 2017
I don't really know where to begin with this review other than saying that it is amazing. Goldberg's writing style is refreshing and enticing. Her characters feel so genuine and real to me. She did an incredible job taking the reader on a journey through the chaos that is a broken heart while life carries on.
January 20, 2018
I enjoyed the shit out of this sad, haunting, beautiful book.
April 28, 2022
"It wasn't an unreasonable request—what's the point of studying literature if you can't even come up with a decent elegy?"
January 31, 2026
This book was amazingly raw and beautiful. An epic look at misplaced love. So relatable in that many women will always long for someone they can never have but still the memories carry them through. The characters in the book were relatable and so unique that it makes them unforgettable. The narration POV makes this book feels like you’re literally in her shoes. Stunningly honest, this book is one I won’t forget. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
January 3, 2021
An instant favourite. One of the most intimate books I've ever read, though maybe only to my own life experience. Still, though, this book felt like being opened up, searched through, and kissed closed again.
January 31, 2024
i liked this so much i dmed the author on instagram. i kinda want to sit on my bedroom floor and cry now.
February 7, 2026
"I wanted to tell you: you can't make me the conduit for all your guilt. You can't look at me and see your moral shortcomings. You can't turn away so quickly."
In Other Women, we follow a despondent college dropout who has fallen in love with a man who already has a girlfriend. She has a long-term affair with him, but while he has stayed with his girlfriend and moved on, she is still fixated on him.
The framing of the book has the narrator speaking directly to 'you' (the man she is in love with) and this brings a real intimacy and vulnerability to everything she has to say. It follows her partially during and immediately after the affair, and then throughout an opportunity she gets to nanny for a well-off family in their move to Berlin. I think these two parts to the story have different strengths.
Before Berlin, our protagonist is lost, frustrated, and the narrative feels very cerebral. Once she goes to Berlin, it feels like she has started to engage more in her life again and really feel things rather than almost narrating it to us from the outside.
I enjoyed reading her growth as a character as she gets closer to members of the family she is nannying for, and I also enjoyed reading the ways she does not grow or change - elements which are constant and fundamental to her character, at least in this stage of her life.
There is no denying that this book is filled with beautiful quotes. I wasn't sure how I felt about this in the first half of the story because sometimes they seemed unnatural. E.g. "On a napkin, I wrote: I miss you like bread misses the knife, like salt misses the wound." On one hand I liked this image, how even the way she misses this man is entrenched in a toxic dynamic where she knows they mutually harm each other. On the other hand, it just felt very attached to its own cleverness, not an honest part of the narrative but deliberate, less authentic.
I completely changed my mind on this for the better in the second half of the story. I think that the slightly overwritten nature was the point for that moment in her life and in her writing to this man she loves. We se her numerous times trying to make him love her and be impressed by her, and it feels like that is what she was still doing there. As she gets more distance from the relationship and spends more time living her life and less time thinking about it, the narrative feels more natural. So I don't thin that the reader is supposed to earnestly buy into all the things she says and thinks in the first half, there's a twist of irony and self-awareness there in her sad musings.
There were two other, shorter stories in this book and they were both great but it was Other Women that I couldn't stop thinking about and I wished it had been a bit longer. This was an excellent book and I would recommend it, especially to anyone who has enjoyed reading Ottessa Moshfegh or Sally Rooney.
"For my birthday, you took me to see La Traviata, and though we had to stand for the whole thing I adored it. That was all I wanted then: to die beautifully, in a silk dress, surrounded by everyone I loved, singing and apologizing."
Thank you NetGalley and Verso Books for sending an advance copy of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
In Other Women, we follow a despondent college dropout who has fallen in love with a man who already has a girlfriend. She has a long-term affair with him, but while he has stayed with his girlfriend and moved on, she is still fixated on him.
The framing of the book has the narrator speaking directly to 'you' (the man she is in love with) and this brings a real intimacy and vulnerability to everything she has to say. It follows her partially during and immediately after the affair, and then throughout an opportunity she gets to nanny for a well-off family in their move to Berlin. I think these two parts to the story have different strengths.
Before Berlin, our protagonist is lost, frustrated, and the narrative feels very cerebral. Once she goes to Berlin, it feels like she has started to engage more in her life again and really feel things rather than almost narrating it to us from the outside.
I enjoyed reading her growth as a character as she gets closer to members of the family she is nannying for, and I also enjoyed reading the ways she does not grow or change - elements which are constant and fundamental to her character, at least in this stage of her life.
There is no denying that this book is filled with beautiful quotes. I wasn't sure how I felt about this in the first half of the story because sometimes they seemed unnatural. E.g. "On a napkin, I wrote: I miss you like bread misses the knife, like salt misses the wound." On one hand I liked this image, how even the way she misses this man is entrenched in a toxic dynamic where she knows they mutually harm each other. On the other hand, it just felt very attached to its own cleverness, not an honest part of the narrative but deliberate, less authentic.
I completely changed my mind on this for the better in the second half of the story. I think that the slightly overwritten nature was the point for that moment in her life and in her writing to this man she loves. We se her numerous times trying to make him love her and be impressed by her, and it feels like that is what she was still doing there. As she gets more distance from the relationship and spends more time living her life and less time thinking about it, the narrative feels more natural. So I don't thin that the reader is supposed to earnestly buy into all the things she says and thinks in the first half, there's a twist of irony and self-awareness there in her sad musings.
There were two other, shorter stories in this book and they were both great but it was Other Women that I couldn't stop thinking about and I wished it had been a bit longer. This was an excellent book and I would recommend it, especially to anyone who has enjoyed reading Ottessa Moshfegh or Sally Rooney.
"For my birthday, you took me to see La Traviata, and though we had to stand for the whole thing I adored it. That was all I wanted then: to die beautifully, in a silk dress, surrounded by everyone I loved, singing and apologizing."
Thank you NetGalley and Verso Books for sending an advance copy of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
February 1, 2026
Nicola Maye Goldberg’s Other Women is a sly, devastating, and quietly brilliant portrait of longing — the kind that lingers long after the last page.
This novel moves with the restless energy of a young woman untethered from direction yet painfully anchored to desire. After dropping out of college, she drifts through New York — invisible, watchful, vulnerable — studying the city as if it holds some ancient spell that might explain her own hunger. The narrative choice to have her speak directly to the man she loves (and knows will never love her back) is striking and intimate. It creates the feeling of confession, of obsession, of a private reckoning unfolding in real time.
Goldberg writes with remarkable precision. The prose is spare but charged; every sentence feels intentional. There is something quietly fearless about how she captures misplaced love — not glamorized, not mocked, but examined with almost surgical tenderness. It is uncomfortable in the way truth often is.
When the protagonist accepts a position as a live-in nanny for Charlotte Herzfeld and travels to Berlin, the novel deepens into something even more precarious. The Herzfelds’ unraveling mirrors her own fragile interior world, and the tension becomes less about romance and more about identity — who we are when we orbit other people’s lives, and what it costs to disappear inside someone else’s story.
What makes this book so powerful is its emotional honesty. It resists easy redemption. It resists neat transformation. Instead, it offers a brutal, clear-eyed exploration of female longing, invisibility, and misplaced devotion. It feels both timeless and painfully current.
Goldberg’s control of voice and structure is impressive — especially the second-person narration, which never feels gimmicky but instead becomes the emotional engine of the novel. There is a confidence in the writing that suggests deep trust in the reader. That trust pays off.
This is the kind of novel that doesn’t shout for attention but instead demands it quietly — and once it has you, it does not let go. A beautifully subversive bildungsroman that cements Nicola Maye Goldberg as a writer unafraid to explore the rawest corners of womanhood.
Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy. This is a book I will be thinking about for a long time.
This novel moves with the restless energy of a young woman untethered from direction yet painfully anchored to desire. After dropping out of college, she drifts through New York — invisible, watchful, vulnerable — studying the city as if it holds some ancient spell that might explain her own hunger. The narrative choice to have her speak directly to the man she loves (and knows will never love her back) is striking and intimate. It creates the feeling of confession, of obsession, of a private reckoning unfolding in real time.
Goldberg writes with remarkable precision. The prose is spare but charged; every sentence feels intentional. There is something quietly fearless about how she captures misplaced love — not glamorized, not mocked, but examined with almost surgical tenderness. It is uncomfortable in the way truth often is.
When the protagonist accepts a position as a live-in nanny for Charlotte Herzfeld and travels to Berlin, the novel deepens into something even more precarious. The Herzfelds’ unraveling mirrors her own fragile interior world, and the tension becomes less about romance and more about identity — who we are when we orbit other people’s lives, and what it costs to disappear inside someone else’s story.
What makes this book so powerful is its emotional honesty. It resists easy redemption. It resists neat transformation. Instead, it offers a brutal, clear-eyed exploration of female longing, invisibility, and misplaced devotion. It feels both timeless and painfully current.
Goldberg’s control of voice and structure is impressive — especially the second-person narration, which never feels gimmicky but instead becomes the emotional engine of the novel. There is a confidence in the writing that suggests deep trust in the reader. That trust pays off.
This is the kind of novel that doesn’t shout for attention but instead demands it quietly — and once it has you, it does not let go. A beautifully subversive bildungsroman that cements Nicola Maye Goldberg as a writer unafraid to explore the rawest corners of womanhood.
Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy. This is a book I will be thinking about for a long time.
February 11, 2026
Other Women completely pulled me in with its voice. The narrator speaks directly to the man she had an affair with, and that second-person address creates this intense, intimate, almost claustrophobic feeling, like you’re trapped inside her longing with her. It’s confessional, raw, and at times painfully self-aware.
We follow a college dropout who falls deeply in love with a man who already has a girlfriend. Their affair lingers in her life long after it has effectively ended for him. What I found most compelling wasn’t the plot itself, but the interiority. The narrator is self-absorbed, but in a way that feels intentional and honest. She circles her own pain, her own desire, her own humiliation. And that self-focus is exactly what makes the story feel so original and real. She’s not trying to be likable; she’s trying to be understood.
The prose is striking and often beautiful. At times it feels almost hyper-aware of its own lyricism, but I actually loved that. It mirrors who she is in that phase of her life, someone performing her heartbreak, intellectualizing it, trying to shape it into something poetic enough to justify it. As the story progresses (especially once she leaves for Berlin to nanny), there’s a subtle shift. The narration feels less like she’s trying to prove something and more like she’s simply existing. That evolution in tone felt purposeful and emotionally resonant.
I also really appreciated that growth in this book isn’t clean or dramatic. She changes in small, uneven ways. Some parts of her soften; others remain stubbornly intact. That felt true to life.
The other stories included in the collection were excellent as well. They share a similar emotional atmosphere, characters who are uncertain about themselves, lingering in dissatisfaction, yearning, or regret. There’s a thread of lament running through all of them, this sense of people trying to make sense of who they are in relation to others.
Overall, I loved the writing style and the immersive, almost obsessive interior voice. This is a book for readers who enjoy character-driven narratives and aren’t afraid of messy, self-involved protagonists. If you gravitate toward authors who explore alienation, longing, and complicated women, this one will absolutely stay with you.
Thank you again to NetGalley and Verso Books for the opportunity to read and review this title.
We follow a college dropout who falls deeply in love with a man who already has a girlfriend. Their affair lingers in her life long after it has effectively ended for him. What I found most compelling wasn’t the plot itself, but the interiority. The narrator is self-absorbed, but in a way that feels intentional and honest. She circles her own pain, her own desire, her own humiliation. And that self-focus is exactly what makes the story feel so original and real. She’s not trying to be likable; she’s trying to be understood.
The prose is striking and often beautiful. At times it feels almost hyper-aware of its own lyricism, but I actually loved that. It mirrors who she is in that phase of her life, someone performing her heartbreak, intellectualizing it, trying to shape it into something poetic enough to justify it. As the story progresses (especially once she leaves for Berlin to nanny), there’s a subtle shift. The narration feels less like she’s trying to prove something and more like she’s simply existing. That evolution in tone felt purposeful and emotionally resonant.
I also really appreciated that growth in this book isn’t clean or dramatic. She changes in small, uneven ways. Some parts of her soften; others remain stubbornly intact. That felt true to life.
The other stories included in the collection were excellent as well. They share a similar emotional atmosphere, characters who are uncertain about themselves, lingering in dissatisfaction, yearning, or regret. There’s a thread of lament running through all of them, this sense of people trying to make sense of who they are in relation to others.
Overall, I loved the writing style and the immersive, almost obsessive interior voice. This is a book for readers who enjoy character-driven narratives and aren’t afraid of messy, self-involved protagonists. If you gravitate toward authors who explore alienation, longing, and complicated women, this one will absolutely stay with you.
Thank you again to NetGalley and Verso Books for the opportunity to read and review this title.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Other Women: And Other Stories was a really gripping and fast-paced reading experience, and I could not put it down! I really enjoyed the author's method of telling a story, and the way the protagonist was speaking directly to the subject of her unrequited love was a really interesting structure.
Nicola Maye Goldberg is a beautiful writer, and even though this was originally published almost 10 years ago, it still felt incredibly relevant. (This is either a compliment to this author or a sign of our regression as a society. You choose.)
I did find the short stories at the end a little bit oddly placed, especially after we spent so long with our original protagonist, so I found myself losing interest a little bit. I liked those stories, but maybe not alongside the first, more predominant story.
#OtherWomen #NetGalley
Nicola Maye Goldberg is a beautiful writer, and even though this was originally published almost 10 years ago, it still felt incredibly relevant. (This is either a compliment to this author or a sign of our regression as a society. You choose.)
I did find the short stories at the end a little bit oddly placed, especially after we spent so long with our original protagonist, so I found myself losing interest a little bit. I liked those stories, but maybe not alongside the first, more predominant story.
#OtherWomen #NetGalley
February 10, 2026
Other Women by Nicola Maye Goldberg was a book I genuinely didn’t want to put down. From the very beginning, her writing style completely pulled me in—it’s sharp, and incredibly engaging. The pacing is fast without feeling rushed, which made it so easy to keep turning the pages and say “just one more page.”
The short stories at the end just aren’t my personal reading style, and they pulled me slightly out of the experience I had with the main novel.
Overall, this was a compelling, fast-paced read with beautiful writing and memorable characters. I’m really glad i was able to give it a read and would absolutely recommend it to readers who enjoy emotionally driven fiction.
The short stories at the end just aren’t my personal reading style, and they pulled me slightly out of the experience I had with the main novel.
Overall, this was a compelling, fast-paced read with beautiful writing and memorable characters. I’m really glad i was able to give it a read and would absolutely recommend it to readers who enjoy emotionally driven fiction.
January 27, 2022
I had this book sitting in my shelf for a while, a friend gave it to me after studying abroad in 2017 in Berlin saying the main girl reminded her of me. I think the main character of this book is bravely written as relatable and pathetic in the way we all are when we are in our early twenties trying to figure things out. I appreciated the vignette style of storytelling, it was more interesting to me than the plot itself. But I think I understand what the author was going for, this a just a book about some girl!
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Accomplishes heaps in a small space. The writing is so precise. Every sentence is compelling. Organic. So much emotional texture and depth and realness to the character. Brief but effective scenes/vignettes. Purposeful dialogue, polished and loaded with subtext.
A while ago, I read an extract of this book in a magazine and loved the voice, but the book was out of print and hard to find. So thanks Verso for republishing, and thanks for the early review copy.
A while ago, I read an extract of this book in a magazine and loved the voice, but the book was out of print and hard to find. So thanks Verso for republishing, and thanks for the early review copy.
January 9, 2023
I bought this book solely off the title without even reading any synopsis or reviews. I definitely didn’t expect to feel so heartbroken being in the position of a woman who was the third person involved in a relationship and had such intimate moments she shared with her lover but couldn’t express it as it was a secret.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 1, 2025
A melancholic, brief read that I often return to whenever I want to feel heartbroken, disappointed, wistful, yet also content. As I've reread it over the years, my response toward the characters have become a measure of my own growth through my early twenties. I enjoyed the short-form narrative and imagery from the author. 4.35/5
January 31, 2026
It's exhausting to be a woman.
This book was a wonderful and emotional experience, I couldn't stop reading it. The last part was very unique, showing womanhood and everything about it.
I gotta say, I loved how much was told with just some short chapters. I related a lot many times.
This book was a wonderful and emotional experience, I couldn't stop reading it. The last part was very unique, showing womanhood and everything about it.
I gotta say, I loved how much was told with just some short chapters. I related a lot many times.
March 27, 2018
I would give this more of a 3.5/5. The writer is talented, and I'd be very interested in reading her future works.
April 14, 2019
God I loved this. If I had a highlighter-The whole novel would have been in neon. Just so simply solidly real.
July 14, 2021
You just have to read it for yourself. The author's writing style is gorgeous. The story is relatable and rooted in imagery. A solid read.
September 24, 2022
This had such beautiful language. It was rather haunting. A very quick and powerful read!
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December 31, 2023Sadness is and sadness was,
And sadness will always be because
And sadness will always be because
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews