Take What You Can

'So brilliantly, unbelievably good I have a burning in my heart from gulping it down too fast' Catherine Newman, New York Times bestselling author of Sandwich and Wreck

Val and Milly fell in love with France at the same time they fell in love with each other, bonding as the only Black students on a study-abroad trip. Now, they are in their thirties, each married and with a baby girl on the way. And when Milly suggests Val move to New York to raise their daughters together after a decade apart, it's a resounding yes.

However, Val and Milly are no longer the girls they once were. Milly is a successful influencer married to restaurant royalty, and Val, is a brilliant journalist, struggling to write her first book and fit into her old friend's new world. The realities of class and social capital, of strained marriages and the demands of motherhood, serve as constant reminders of how far apart they've grown.

And no matter how much they try to avoid it, everything comes back to a rift that began all those years ago in France. What they've long tried to bury may finally destroy their sisterhood...

The deeply engrossing new novel about female friendships from Naima Coster, TAKE WHAT YOU CAN has been selected as one of People's Most Anticipated Books of 2026, New York Times Summer's Best Beach Reads and Harper Bazaar's Summer Book Picks.

PRAISE FOR NAIMA COSTER

"A magnificent book of emotional precision and startling insight, as awake to beauty and light as it is unafraid of the shadows, Take What You Can had me spellbound as I tore through it' Megha Majumdar, National Book Award finalist for A Guardian and a Thief and bestselling author of A Burning

'The kind of novel you'll be hungry to share with your own friends, debating who's right, who's wrong, and who could use a hug the most' Dawnie Walton, Women's Prize longlisted author of The Final Revival of Opal and Nev