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Take What You Can
- Author
- Naima Coster
- Narrator
- January LaVoy
- Publisher
- Orion
- Publish Date
- 6 August 2026
- Run Time
- 12 hours 17 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
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What to expect
'So brilliantly, unbelievably good I have a burning in my heart from gulping it down too fast' Catherine Newman, New York Times bestselling author of Sandwich and Wreck
'Expect this to be one of summer's most talked-about novels' Marie Claire
Val and Milly fell in love with France at the same time they fell in love with each other, bonding as the only Black students on a study-abroad trip. Now, they are in their thirties, each married and with a baby girl on the way. And when Milly suggests Val move to New York to raise their daughters together after a decade apart, it's a resounding yes.
However, Val and Milly are no longer the girls they once were. Milly is a successful influencer married to restaurant royalty, and Val, is a brilliant journalist, struggling to write her first book and fit into her old friend's new world. The realities of class and social capital, of strained marriages and the demands of motherhood, serve as constant reminders of how far apart they've grown.
And no matter how much they try to avoid it, everything comes back to a rift that began all those years ago in France. What they've long tried to bury may finally destroy their sisterhood...
The deeply engrossing new novel about female friendships from Naima Coster, TAKE WHAT YOU CAN has been selected as one of People's Most Anticipated Books of 2026, New York Times Summer's Best Beach Reads and Harper Bazaar's Summer Book Picks.
PRAISE FOR NAIMA COSTER
"A magnificent book of emotional precision and startling insight, as awake to beauty and light as it is unafraid of the shadows, Take What You Can had me spellbound as I tore through it' Megha Majumdar, National Book Award finalist for A Guardian and a Thief and bestselling author of A Burning
'The kind of novel you'll be hungry to share with your own friends, debating who's right, who's wrong, and who could use a hug the most' Dawnie Walton, Women's Prize longlisted author of The Final Revival of Opal and Nev
Critics Review
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'[A] nuanced exploration of friendship and motherhood'
New York Times Book Review
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'Naima Coster sifts through female friendships to uncover enduring truths'
Time Magazine
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'Take What You Can is so brilliantly, unbelievably good I have a burning in my heart from gulping it down too fast. It is somehow both taut and expansive-a literary feat I don't understand-and it's about the pleasure, grief, and devotion of daughters, mothers, lovers, wives. But mostly it's about the coming together and coming apart of a singular epic friendship between two women. Love is utterly bewildering, and nobody writes about it better than Naima Coster'
Catherine Newman
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'A magnificent book of emotional precision and startling insight, as awake to beauty and light as it is unafraid of the shadows, Take What You Can had me spellbound as I tore through it'
Megha Majumdar
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'In Take What You Can, Naima Coster ensnares us in the whole-hearted, consuming and sometimes malefic love of Milly and Val, two friends with unresolved pasts and decidedly different approaches to their futures. A riveting, gut-churning, unputdownable examination of friendship that, at times makes you want to throw this book against a wall. In the best way. I have not loved to hate to love two fully fleshed out fictional women this much since I left Elena and Lila in Naples... A triumph of beautiful writing and unforgettable characters'
Xochitl Gonzalez
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'Take What You Can bravely tackles so much of modern life.... Naima Coster's gripping third novel is about chosen family, exploring the complex dynamic-perhaps more intimate than those of spouses, or even parents and their children-between truly close friends'
Rumaan Alam
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'Long after reading the last page of Naima Coster's latest exploration of love, I still feel Milly and Val pulsing through my soul. Their story of a shaky friendship amid the disorienting chaos of new motherhood made me feel seen, understood, and literally breathless, gasping at the precise, sophisticated ways these women know how to cut each other, then doctor the wounds. Take What You Can is the kind of novel you'll be hungry to share with your own friends, debating who's right, who's wrong, and who could use a hug the most'
Dawnie Walton
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Naima Coster
- Narrator
- January LaVoy
- Duration
- 12 hours 17 minutes
- Release Date
- 6 August 2026
- ISBN
- 9781398703414
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Orion
- Genre
- Fiction: literary and general non-genre
Synopsis
THE GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK 'So brilliantly, unbelievably good I have a burning in my heart from gulping it down too fast' Catherine Newman, New York Times bestselling author of Sandwich and Wreck'Expect this to be one of summer's most talked-about novels' Marie ClaireVal and Milly fell in love with France at the same time they fell in love with each other, bonding as the only Black students on a study-abroad trip. Now, they are in their thirties, each married and with a baby girl on the way. And when Milly suggests Val move to New York to raise their daughters together after a decade apart, it's a resounding yes. However, Val and Milly are no longer the girls they once were. Milly is a successful influencer married to restaurant royalty, and Val, is a brilliant journalist, struggling to write her first book and fit into her old friend's new world. The realities of class and social capital, of strained marriages and the demands of motherhood, serve as constant reminders of how far apart they've grown. And no matter how much they try to avoid it, everything comes back to a rift that began all those years ago in France. What they've long tried to bury may finally destroy their sisterhood...The deeply engrossing new novel about female friendships from Naima Coster, TAKE WHAT YOU CAN has been selected as one of People's Most Anticipated Books of 2026, New York Times Summer's Best Beach Reads and Harper Bazaar's Summer Book Picks.PRAISE FOR NAIMA COSTER"A magnificent book of emotional precision and startling insight, as awake to beauty and light as it is unafraid of the shadows, Take What You Can had me spellbound as I tore through it' Megha Majumdar, National Book Award finalist for A Guardian and a Thief and bestselling author of A Burning'The kind of novel you'll be hungry to share with your own friends, debating who's right, who's wrong, and who could use a hug the most' Dawnie Walton, Women's Prize longlisted author of The Final Revival of Opal and Nev
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