The World To See

When teenager Nadine Harvey helps her best friend hide a disturbing secret, she’s also concealing her own deepest truth: she’ll do almost anything to be wanted.

The Story

When teenager Nadine Harvey helps her best friend hide a disturbing secret, she’s also concealing her own deepest truth: she’ll do almost anything to be wanted. Five years and three thousand miles later, Nadine is thrilled when her idol, Celeste—a rock singer known as “the oracle”—befriends her.As Celeste’s career begins to falter, she launches a bold program encouraging women to speak their truths. Nadine eagerly becomes her business partner, but as their ambitions clash, their alliance starts to unravel.Determined to hide their growing rift, Celeste and Nadine invite their mothers to a high-profile awards gala. When painful histories resurface, each woman must confront how she sees herself—and how the world sees her.

"Powerful, compulsively readable..."

“Handler brings her trademark scything gaze and compassionate understanding of human nature to this vivid tale of two women navigating their relationships with their mothers, their entwined histories, and their music. Her nuanced exploration of how art, lies, and community shape female identity is lived out by characters so real, I had to remind myself that they were fictional. This is a powerful, compulsively readable story that will stay with me for a very long time.”

Joshilyn Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Never Have I Ever and With My Little Eye

Explore MORE buying options

Books by Jessica Handler

Explore Jessica Handler's thought-provoking themes and powerful narratives.

Invisible Sisters

One daughter’s moving account of illness, death, and the dissolution of her family.

Braving The Fire

"Braving the Fire" is the first book to provide a road map for the journey of writing honestly about grief and loss.

The Magnetic Girl

Set in a time of emerging electricity and heightened Spiritualism, "The Magnetic Girl" is an inspired novel about women's quest for political, cultural, and sexual presence.

The World To See

When teenager Nadine Harvey helps her best friend hide a disturbing secret, she’s also concealing her own deepest truth: she’ll do almost anything to be wanted.