This image is the cover for the book Imaginary Friends

Imaginary Friends

Two sociologists infiltrate a cult that pulls them into madness in this “barbed and richly entertaining” novel from a Pulitzer Prize–winning author (The Wall Street Journal).

Once the nation’s most popular sociologist, Tom McMann searches for a research subject that will invigorate his career. Unlike any study he’s seen before, he targets the Truth Seekers, an up-and-coming cult that seeks flying saucers, utopian planets, and new spiritual plains. An irresistible mixture of New Age cranks and sci-fi nerds, they are ruled over by Verena, a beautiful young telepath who believes she has a hotline to another world. The Seekers are isolated, committed, and eccentric, but most importantly, they’re hiring.

Assisted by his wide-eyed young colleague, Roger Zimmern, McMann infiltrates the Truth Seekers, hoping to see how the zealots respond if questioned by someone within their midst. But when Verena’s babblings start to make a little too much sense, the researchers must choose between losing their minds and buying one-way tickets to outer space.

From the National Book Award–shortlisted author of Foreign Affairs, The War Between the Tates, and The Last Resort, this is a richly funny novel that will dazzle and entertain.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alison Lurie including rare images from the author’s collection.

Alison Lurie

Alison Lurie (1926–2020) was a Pulitzer Prize–winning author of fiction and nonfiction. Born in Chicago and raised in White Plains, New York, she joined the English department at Cornell University in 1970, where she taught courses on children’s literature, among others. Her first novel, Love and Friendship (1962), is a story of romance and deception among the faculty of a snowbound New England college. It won favorable reviews and established her as a keen observer of love in academia. It was followed by the well-received The Nowhere City (1966) and The War Between the Tates (1974). In 1984, she published Foreign Affairs, her best-known novel, which traces the erotic entanglements of two American professors in England. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1985. Her most recent novel is The Last Resort (1998). In addition to her novels, Lurie’s interest in children’s literature led to three collections of folk tales and two critical studies of the genre. Lurie officially retired from Cornell in 1998, but continued to teach and write in the years following. In 2012, she was awarded a two-year term as the official author of the state of New York.