17 Swann Street

The majority of The Girls at 17 Swann Street is set at 17 Swann Street, a residential eating disorder treatment facility. The house is the setting for Anna’s introduction to recovery. She and the other patients participate in a regulated meal schedule, group therapy, and sessions with a nutritionist while they stay at 17 Swann Street. While Anna feels trapped at the treatment facility, she eventual recognizes that she needs residential treatment in order to overcome her maladaptive coping behaviors and reclaim her identity as an individual, not an eating disorder.

Paris

The majority of the flash backs in the novel are set in Paris, France, the city where Anna grew up. As a child she enjoyed going on morning walks with her father to the boulangerie and exploring the city’s boulevards. Years later, she met her husband, Matthias, in Paris and they lived together in a small...