Eileen
Ottessa Moshfegh's 2015 debut novel introduced the deadpan, self-loathing female narrator who would define a wave of post-millennial literary fiction. Eileen Dunlop is twenty-four, working a clerical job at a juvenile boys' prison in a small New England town, living with her alcoholic ex-cop father in a house she has stopped cleaning, and quietly contemplating suicide and theft and the hot-water bottle she keeps under her coat. When the prison hires a glamorous new education director named Rebecca, Eileen falls into a fast, lopsided friendship that culminates over Christmas week in a crime that finally lets her leave. Moshfegh writes Eileen's first-person voice with a calm cruelty that shocked critics, and the novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. A natural entry point for readers who later devoured My Year of Rest and Relaxation.
Where Eileen keeps showing up
Two of our editors' lists feature this novel.
Also by Ottessa Moshfegh
What you might want to know about Eileen
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
In a snowy 1960s New England town, twenty-four-year-old Eileen Dunlop works at a boys' juvenile prison and lives with her drunk retired-cop father. The arrival of a glamorous new colleague named Rebecca tips her life over.
Yes. A 2023 film adaptation directed by William Oldroyd and starring Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway was released. The film follows the novel's grim 1960s setting and noir tone.
Eileen was shortlisted for the 2016 Booker Prize and won the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction. It established Ottessa Moshfegh's reputation as a leading voice of bleak literary fiction.
Eileen was written by Ottessa Moshfegh, published in 2015 by LGF.
Eileen is 272 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Eileen takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
Eileen is a standalone novel by Ottessa Moshfegh, not part of a series.
Eileen is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
