Maggie
Or, a Man and a Woman Walk into a Bar: ‘HEARTBURN for the 2020s’ The Times
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- 12,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
Longlisted for the 2026 PEN / Hemingway Award for Debut Novel
Winner of the 2025 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize.
A New York Times Book of the Year.
A TIME's 100 Must-Read Book of 2025.
'The best divorce novel I've read for years.'
The Times
'A gem of a novel, one that will make you think, make you feel, and make you laugh.' ALISON ESPACH, author of The Wedding People
'One of the most delightful debuts I've read in a long time.' The New York Times
A man and a woman walk into a restaurant.
The woman hopes they will order the best wine on the menu.
Instead, her husband tells her he is having an affair with a woman called Maggie.
When her chest starts to ache, the woman goes to a doctor who tells her the pain in her breast isn't just heartbreak - but - cancer. She decides to call the tumour Maggie and begins to strike up a conversation with it.
In turns wildly funny and devastatingly tender, Maggie takes place during a pause -between divorce and marriage, sickness and health, the unknown and the status quo. In reaction to the unfolding chaos, the heartbroken woman creates 'A Guide to My Husband: A User's Manual' filled with a thousand facts for the real Maggie about the man they both love. In the tradition of Nora Ephron's writing on heartbreak and womanhood, Maggie is set to be the divorce novel of our age.
"Katie Yee's debut novel...is full of resentment-tinged wit, just like Nora Ephron's classic." The Times
'Katie Yee is a storyteller extraordinaire.' DELIA EPHRON, sister of Nora Ephron and author of Siracusa
'An absolutely delightful debut! An inspiring story of growth and wonder. Highly recommend!' ELIN HILDERBRAND, author of The Perfect Couple, now a major Netflix series
'Stands out as one of the most unusual literary debuts of the summer.' Washington Post
'A wry meditation on grief, healing, and reclaiming one's identity.' TIME Magazine
'A stand-out and must-read debut... Every paragraph is perfect' WEIKE WANG, author of Joan Is Okay
Summer's Best Beach Reads by The New York Times * Books You Should Read This July by New York magazine * Books We're Most Excited About by Today * Best Beach Reads by Harper's Bazaar * Best Books of Summer by ELLE * Most Anticipated Books of the Summer by Time * Best Summer Reads by Oprah Daily * Books to Read this Summer by The Washington Post
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Yee's appealing debut centers on an unnamed Chinese American woman whose husband has an affair. The narrator and her husband, Sam, are out on a date when he abruptly informs her that he's leaving her for a woman named Maggie, whom he met through his job as a corporate headhunter. Later, the narrator, a stay-at-home mom, feels a dull ache in her breast. Her best friend, Darlene, says she's "manifesting pain," but a trip to the doctor reveals that it is, in fact, cancer, a development the narrator conceals from her soon-to-be-ex-husband. Meanwhile, she fields questions from her four-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son about why their father is suddenly on so many business trips, and weaves Chinese folklore she learned from her mother into the children's bedtime stories. Despite the drama inherent in a marriage's collapse and a potentially life-threatening illness, the novel unfolds at a sedate pace, with frequent digressions into the past, including the protagonist's memories of her late mother, a seamstress, and Sam's very different upbringing as the child of wealthy white parents. Still, Yee is an attentive storyteller, empathetic to all her characters, even Maggie. Readers drawn to nuanced domestic narratives will find much to savor.
