Sloane Crosley is getting the big-screen treatment. The Hollywood Reporter has announced that the essayist’s debut novel, “The Clasp,” has been optioned by Universal. The book centers on a group of college friends who reunite at a wedding. The trio end up embarking on an unexpected journey: they go abroad in the hopes of hunting down a pricey necklace that disappeared during the Nazi occupation of France. David Sedaris has described the novel as “perfectly, relentlessly funny.”

“The Clasp” was released just last year. Crosley, a former book publicist at Random House, will handle screenwriting duties. Helen Estabrook (“Whiplash”) will produce the project, and Sara Scott will oversee for Universal.

Crosley’s two non-fiction collections, 2008’s “I Was Told There’d Be Cake” and 2010’s “How Did You Get This Number,” were New York Times bestsellers. “The Clasp” was a national bestseller.

“I always wanted to write fiction,” Crosley told Esquire. She explained, “I knew I had a novel in me, I just didn’t know what the story was, and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to write some roman à clef about a bunch of kids living in Brooklyn. I wanted the story to be bigger, and I wanted to get into someone else’s head. I’m plenty in my own head. I feel very personally well explored … what would be the point of fiction unless it is to truly enter someone else’s experience?”