Genre: Nonfiction
Length: 256 pages
Audiobook Length: 6 hours and 30 minutes
First Published: 2020
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Publisher’s Description
A close friendship is one of the most influential and important relationships a human life can contain. Anyone will tell you that! But for all the rosy sentiments surrounding friendship, most people don’t talk much about what it really takes to stay close for the long haul.
Now two friends, Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman, tell the story of their equally messy and life-affirming Big Friendship in this honest and hilarious book that chronicles their first decade in one another’s lives. As the hosts of the hit podcast Call Your Girlfriend, they’ve become known for frank and intimate conversations. In this book, they bring that energy to their own friendship—its joys and its pitfalls.
Aminatou and Ann define Big Friendship as a strong, significant bond that transcends life phases, geographical locations, and emotional shifts. And they should know: the two have had moments of charmed bliss and deep frustration, of profound connection and gut-wrenching alienation. They have weathered life-threatening health scares, getting fired from their dream jobs, and one unfortunate Thanksgiving dinner eaten in a car in a parking lot in Rancho Cucamonga. Through interviews with friends and experts, they have come to understand that their struggles are not unique. And that the most important part of a Big Friendship is making the decision to invest in one another again and again.
An inspiring and entertaining testament to the power of society’s most underappreciated relationship, Big Friendship will invite you to think about how your own bonds are formed, challenged, and preserved. It is a call to value your friendships in all of their complexity. Actively choose them. And, sometimes, fight for them.
About Aminatou Sow
Aminatou Sow co-hosts the podcast Call your Girlfriend and is the co-author of the book Big Friendship, both with Ann Friedman. She currently lives in Brooklyn.
About Ann Friedman
Ann Friedman is a journalist and essayist. Along with Aminatou Sow, she co-hosts the podcast Call your Girlfriend and is the co-author of the book Big Friendship. She is a contributing editor to The Gentlewoman. Currently, Friedman lives in Los Angeles, California. Visit the author’s website →
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