HOW TO BE SINGLE.

Liz Tuccillo. Atria. 368 pages. $24.95.

The question makes unattached women of a certain age cringe: Why are you still single? The answer is simple in this captivating debut novel -- because men are married, stupid, selfish or all three -- and Liz Tuccillo turns the unwelcome query into an international examination of love, heartbreak and singledom.

Narrator Julie Jensen, a 38-year-old book publicist, hasn't been in a serious relationship for six years, and her New York City friends are in various stages of unattachment when the novel begins. Georgia has been dumped by her husband for a ''twenty-seven-year-old whore gutter trash samba teacher.'' Serena is a vegetarian chef and student of Hinduism who has been celibate for four years. Alice has quit her job as a legal-aid attorney to date fulltime, and Ruby is mourning her recently deceased cat and long-dead relationships.

Left to contemplate the great mystery of dating life -- why it is that any man, ''poor, boring, bald, fat, arrogant'' can get a girlfriend at any time, while the ''smart, funny, gorgeous, sane, financially stable, professionally fulfilled, fascinating, fit women'' in their mid-30s to mid-40s stay single -- Julie strikes out on a book project to discover if there's any place on Earth where women are better at being alone.

The journey takes her into familiar territory for readers of Elizabeth Gilbert's memoir Eat, Pray, Love. Like Gilbert, Julie makes stops in Italy, India and Indonesia (and adds such other far-flung locales as Iceland, China and Australia).

As Tuccillo alternates between Julie's affairs abroad and her friends' lives in the city, she proves to be a gifted, sparkling writer. Conversational, witty and kind, she's a joy to read.

Julie's physical insecurities are endearing and appropriately shot down. ``I have to admit to myself that I'm absolutely sure the reason I don't have a boyfriend is because of my cellulite and my huge thighs. Women are crazy, let's move on.''

And Tuccillo's musings, even just a throwaway dig at ''yoga done in a room the temperature of Hell,'' are just plain funny.

The novel probably won't reveal anything groundbreaking to readers of Tuccillo's previous book, He's Just Not That Into You (written with Greg Behrendt) or viewers of Sex and the City, for which Tuccillo was an executive story editor. But How to Be Single is a big improvement on some of the junk that masquerades as chick lit.

If Tuccillo packs in an excess of melodrama and tears, she gets major points for giving the girls a hopeful ending that isn't flat-out unbelievable. In a summer when Carrie and Co. dominated the box office, female empowerment rules. So does this book.

Hannah Sampson is a Miami Herald staff writer.

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