Actress Lena Dunham is publishing a serialized romance novel on Vogue’s website to entertain those who are stuck in isolation due to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
Dunham will be publishing chapters of her novel Verified Strangers on Vogue’s website Monday through Friday, according to the Hollywood Reporter. As of Tuesday, two chapters have been posted.
On Monday, the 7 Days in Hell actress took to Twitter to announce that the project, which she hopes will make its readers “feel closer to others” while in quarantine over the worldwide pandemic.
“When I found out this #coronavirus was going to keep us in our homes, I wondered how we could create community – and storytelling has always been a way for me to feel closer to others, when I’m feeling alone,” Dunham wrote.
“Also, I’ve always been fascinated by serialized publishing,” she added. “Whether it was hundreds of battered babysitters club novels or learning about how #CharlesDickens released his greatest novels as serialized chapters in penny newspapers.”
Dunham also insisted that “a romance novel is the pulpiest and most distracting fun you can have,” as well as a medium that she has long wanted to get involved in.
“It seemed the perfect time to launch this project,” said Vogue‘s online editor Stuart Emmrich, according to the Hollywood Reporter. “In this unsettling period of isolation and anxiety, the act of communal reading can provide enormous solace.”
The report added that the actress’s novel will focus on a character named Ally, who is “32, single, and nursing the kind of heartbreak that has taken years to mend.”
Moreover, the story’s plot reportedly involves Ally realizing that Los Angeles has a shortage of eligible men, so then her friend steps in an suggests that she date “verified strangers,” which means “a friend of a friend” — verified in the sense that someone you know knows them, but a stranger in the sense that they are new to you.
“Every second chapter will end with a cliffhanger,” said Vogue. “Ally is faced with two options for her next move. Which will she choose?”
The report added that after the chapter is published, readers will be able to vote on Vogue‘s Instagram account on the direction in which they would like to see the story should go — by which Dunham will abide.
“Find out what Ally does when it rains men (and one woman) and vote on where you want this story to go, in a modern choose-your-own-adventure romance novel, written exclusively for quarantined singletons and the people who love them,” said Dunham.
Follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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