An Abundance of Katherines

When it comes to relationships, everyone has a type. Colin Singleton’s type is girls named Katherine. He has dated–and been dumped by–19 Katherines. In the wake of The K-19 Debacle, Colin–an anagram-obsessed washed-up child prodigy–heads out on a road trip with his overweight, Judge Judy- loving friend Hassan. With 10,000 dollars in his pocket and a feral hog on his trail, Colin is on a mission to prove a mathematical theorem he hopes will predict the future of any relationship (and conceivably win the girl).

An Abundance of Katherines was a 2007 Michael L. Printz Honor book and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. It was also named one of the books of the year by Booklist, Horn Book, and Kirkus.

If you are fully prepared to be inundated with spoilers, you can learn much, much more about Katherines at the book’s Questions page.

If you would like to read this book in another language, go to the Translations page.

Reviews (Spoiler Alert!)

“Imagine an operating room at the start of a daring but well-rehearsed procedure and you will have something of the atmosphere of ”An Abundance of Katherines”: every detail considered, the action unrolling with grace and inevitability.”

-New York Times Book Review

“Green follows his Printz winning Looking for Alaska (2005) with another sharp, intelligent story. The laugh-out-loud humor ranges from delightfully sophomoric to subtly intellectual.”
-Booklist, Starred Review

“Fully fun, challengingly complex, and entirely entertaining.”
-Kirkus, Starred Review

“Laugh-out-loud funny, this second novel by the author of the Printz winner Looking for Alaska charts a singular coming-of-age American road trip that is at once a satire of and a tribute to its many celebrated predecessors.”
-Horn Book, Starred Review

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Christina December 14, 2011 at 7:25 pm

I love, love, love this book. It is by far my far. John Green book. I think the speach that Hassan gave is sooo incredibly funny. (:
” She gave us the job because a fatty always trust another fatty.” Classic!!
Beautiful John Green, just beautiful.

Lauren D. December 25, 2011 at 9:41 pm

There’s a mistake! On page 64, when the subtext is telling the sentence about all the 99 digits of pi Colin knew, one of the digits is wrong. It’s a seven instead of a six! The word is garfish, G, 7. The section says, “Duly, garfish babysit for…”
4,7,2,6. It should be 4,6,2,6. Look it up yourself if you don’t believe me!
DFTBA<3

Diana Marie January 2, 2012 at 8:11 am

I’ve read all four books, and love them all! I can’t pick a favorite because they are all so great. John always makes every character so lively, so real. I find myself falling in love with them all. It’s as though I have friends printed on the pages of these books, and I never want them to end. I’ve read each book at least a minimum of 5 times. Tfios I absolutely know will not disappoint. Thank you, John, for making me fall in love with books all over again.

Libby K. January 27, 2012 at 3:36 pm

Just read TFiOS, and although is is great, this book is still my favorite. I love all the random facts I have learned from it, and sitzpinkler (hope I spelled that right) has now become part of my regular vocabulary.

(BTW, I can’t help but notice that all of the comments are left by females… Come on male nerdfighters! Speak up!)

Hannah Mehrtens February 2, 2012 at 11:36 pm: Ha! Sitzpinkler is part of my daily vocabulary as well! My friends are all like, “What…” Lol.
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