Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | To The Precipice | 1966 | Judith Rossner | Buy |
| 2 | Nine Months in the Life of an Old Maid | 1969 | Judith Rossner | Buy |
| 3 | Any Minute I Can Split | 1972 | Judith Rossner | Buy |
| 4 | Looking for Mr. Goodbar | 1975 | Judith Rossner | Buy |
| 5 | Attachments | 1977 | Judith Rossner | Buy |
| 6 | Emmeline | 1980 | Judith Rossner | Buy |
| 7 | August | 1983 | Judith Rossner | Buy |
| 8 | His Little Women | 1990 | Judith Rossner | Buy |
| 9 | Olivia or The Weight of the Past | 1994 | Judith Rossner | Buy |
| 10 | Perfidia | 1997 | Judith Rossner | Buy |
Judith Rossner published ten standalone novels between 1966 and 1997. Her early work focused on young women navigating relationships and identity in New York City. To the Precipice (1966) follows a woman who marries to escape poverty. Nine Months in the Life of an Old Maid (1969) and Any Minute I Can Split (1972) continued these themes with sharper comedy and more ambitious structures.
Looking for Mr. Goodbar (1975) changed Rossner’s career. Based on the 1973 murder of schoolteacher Roseann Quinn, the novel became a number-one bestseller and was adapted into a 1977 film with Diane Keaton. Attachments (1977) explores two women who marry conjoined twins, while Emmeline (1980) is a historical novel about a thirteen-year-old girl sent to work in the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1839, who unknowingly marries her own son decades later. August (1983) is a detailed portrait of psychoanalysis told from both the therapist’s and the patient’s points of view.
His Little Women (1990) is a modern retelling of the Louisa May Alcott classic, centered on four daughters of a Hollywood movie producer. Olivia or The Weight of the Past (1994) and Perfidia (1997) rounded out Rossner’s career. Perfidia, like Goodbar, drew from a real crime and tells the story of a destructive mother-daughter relationship in Santa Fe that ends in violence.