Longreads

Elliott Holt's first novel, You Are One of Them, will be published by The Penguin Press in June 2013.

Read more guest picks from Longreads Best of 2012.

See the latest from our community's Top 5 lists celebrating the year's best nonfiction and fiction. Includes picks from Jessica Pressler, Jenna Wortham, Steve Silberman, Matthias Rascher, Lev Grossman, Doree Shafrir, Alexander Chee, Elliott Holt, and more.

[Fiction] An adolescent girl's discoveries about her beautiful, elusive mother:

"At the time, what I saw struck me as a strange dream, one that I managed to forget for many years. I was so angry with my mother for so long. Now I’m old enough to recognize the disillusion I saw dawning on her face that night. Happiness is elusive. I’ve learned you can become the kind of person you swore you’d never be. Your sense of self can slip out from under you. You can fall so far. She must have known it couldn’t last. Her eyes were closed against the future."