Generous-hearted and wickedly insightful, The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing is the New York Times bestselling novel by Melissa Bank and part of the Penguin Essentials, a series which spotlights the very best of our modern classics

The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing maps the progress of Jane Rosenal as she sets out on a personal and spirited expedition through the perilous terrain of sex, love, relationships, and the treacherous waters of the workplace. Soon Jane is swept off her feet by an older man and into a Fitzgeraldesque whirl of cocktail parties, country houses, and rules that were made to be broken, but comes to realise that it’s a world where the stakes are much too high for comfort. With an unforgettable comic touch, Bank skilfully teases out universal issues, puts a clever new spin on the mating dance, and captures in perfect pitch what it’s like to come of age as a young woman.