'Fried is particularly adept at capturing the sights and sounds of residence life and the massive internal upheaval that many students experience when they move away from home for the first time.' -- by Neale McDevitt & Daniel McCabe, McGill News Read full review 'On October 17, 2005, Golda Fried stepped out of the college class she was teaching in Greensboro, North Carolina, to discover nine messages waiting on her cell phone.“It was weird because no one ever calls me – I was worried someone had died,” she recalls a year later. Fortunately, her morbid fear was short lived, as moments later her phone rang. It was her mother on the other end. She was on her tenth attempt to announce that Fried’s novel, Nellcott Is My Darling, had been nominated as a finalist for the Governor General’s Award—one of Canada’s most prestigious literary prizes.' -- by Marc Apollonio, Ukula Read full article 'This is a gorgeous, heartwarming, and heartbreaking novel. It is a feminine bildungsroman, a spiritual cousin to Broken Social Scene's "Anthems for a 17-Year-Old Girl". And, one hopes, a novel that hipsters and readers of all stripes should be talking about in the years to come... the literary world's equivalent of an Arcade Fire or Wolf Parade record.' -- by Zachary Houle, PopMatters Read full review 'Say you have this friend. She's a sweet kid, charming and innocent. She has a boyfriend. He treats her like crap and makes her miserable. But she loves him. You want him to die, or you at least want to smirk at the back of his head after she tells him to hit the road. Does this sound familiar? Well, that's what reading Golda Fried's Nelcott is my Darling is like. Alice, the main character, is your adorable friend. Nelcott is the boyfriend that you can't stand.' -- by Saraline Grenier, The Link Read full review 'Alice is a wispy and infuriating young lady. In other words, she is 19 years old. Fried's portraiture is rich in detail and terribly believable. Alice is a useful mixture of perceptive and naïve, and Fried does an excellent job of describing Montreal through fresh eyes...' -- by Ryan Bigge Read full review 'It’s good to see an author mature rather than merely continue to write. It’s even better when that maturing author retains all the wonder and whimsy that made her almost cloying, less mature self so damn attractive... Let’s leave it at this: Nelcott is one of the few genuinely good small-press books that will be published this year. Read it to restore your faith in writers you’ve never heard of.' -- by Bert Archer, Georgia Straight Read full review 'Montrealers and McGillians will enjoy Fried's many references to the city and the University as they follow Alice through the rabbit hole of a young life in transition.' -- by Michael Bourguignon, McGill News Read full review 'Two former Montreal residents who now live south of the border have each composed charming novels that explore the rites of passage of their unique narrators. While reading the two books in tandem, I began to see Boy Proof's protagonist and the narrator of Nellcott Is My Darling as alter egos of one another. As both novels are exquisitely penned with panache, the feeling of zeitgeist was further intensified.' -- by MJ Stone, Hour Read full review 'Fried's novel is remarkable for being unremarkable. The book doesn't aspire to be anything more than what it is: a glimpse at a young woman's growing pains. There's no strained resolution, no moral stuffed in the reader's gob. Nellcott Is My Darling is a dose of realism only semi-sweetened from time to time.' -- by Matthew Firth, Ottawa Xpress Read full review 'Fried's command of language and periodic moments of poetic acuity held me. I rooted for Alice as she falls in love with Nellcott, such a perfect example of an early-90s record store employee, I could practically hear the Pixies singing whenever I saw his name on the page. The clumsy 23-year-old musician from Laval with a mystical demeanour helps welcome Alice to romance and to the romantic poverty of Montreal – about which women like Fried (and I) love to write.' -- by Zoe Whittall, Now Toronto Read full review 'Fried obviously hasn't forgotten. Here she documents the little incivilities, immaturities and pretensions that eventually lead to feuding roommates and friends, but she ends the story right before it gets to that point. We can easily predict what might happen in her second year, but in avoiding the obvious resolutions, Fried captures a slice of university life that feels far more complex and resonant than this kind of novel usually does. It's one of those rare novels that captures innocence without resorting to nostalgia.' -- by Juliet Waters, Montreal Mirror Read full review 'When shy, virginal Alice tells her friend Walker about the crush she has on a guy in her children's lit class, he advises her to get some sexy underwear. So Alice sits down in her tiny dorm room and cuts the bows off the 10 pairs of cotton panties that her mom bought her in bulk. It's funny because it's true. For anyone who was ever a raw, vulnerable, clueless teenager, it's even hilarious. Golda Fried has a knack for capturing the awkwardness of youth, and Nellcott is My Darling is full of painfully accurate scenes like this.' -- by Wendy Banks, The Globe and Mail Read full review 'There's something captivating about Fried's prose that makes Alice and Nellcott's relationship feel like a slow-motion whirlpool. Writing in such short sentences and with such a fine eye for the minutiae of relationships, she circles around emotional pivot points until the reader feels dragged into the depths of her characters, unaware of how he got there.' -- by Jonathan Messinger, Time Out Chicago Read full review 'Like Alice, Fried grew up in Toronto and went to McGill. Now teaching English composition in Greensboro, N.C., she has crafted a story that will speak to anyone who has lived through the drama of a first boy or girlfriend, or tentatively tried to make a new life in a new city. Yes, this is yet another coming of age story but it's the telling of it that makes it worth reading. And what stories aren't told over and over again? Fried's strength is in making this one sound both fresh and poignant.' -- by Lisa Fitterman, Montreal Gazette Read full review 'Fried keeps her sentences short and her narrative rolling with youthful wisdom and piercing humor.' -- by Barbara Bamberger Scott (author of With It), The News & Record Read full review 'A tender, funny, wistful novel that may be the best fictional account of a freshman college year since The Secret History -- only much more plausible and with much nicer kids, the nicest by far being its heroine Alice Charles. Alice shares several traits with her namesakes in children's literature: naiveté and common sense, sensitivity, courage and a predilection for flying boys. Nellcott is My Darling has the heartbreaking lightness of a Yo La Tengo song. Also the sweetness, the melancholy, and the bracing jabs of astringent wit.' -- by Peter Trachtenberg, author of 7 Tattoos Website © Golda Fried. / All rights reserved.