Fleishman Is in Trouble
Now a major TV series starring Claire Danes & Jesse Eisenberg
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3.9 • 32 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
'Sharp and wicked, insightful and funny, and then suddenly so touching' DAVID NICHOLLS
'It is a Great Novel . . . It has depth, wit, nuance and life. Heartbreaking and funny' NIGELLA LAWSON
'This is the novel of the summer . . . There is no one that this book isn't for. I can't believe it's a first novel. Pure brilliance' INDIA KNIGHT, THE SUNDAY TIMES
'Could be one of the books of my entire lifetime. I've never felt so seen' GRACE DENT, GUARDIAN
'This book is a work of utter perfection' ELIZABETH GILBERT
THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, JUNE 2019
Finally free from his nightmare marriage, Toby Fleishman is ready for a life of online dating and weekend-only parental duties. But as he optimistically looks to a future that is wildly different from the one he imagined, his life turns upside-down as his ex-wife, Rachel, suddenly disappears.
While Toby tries to find out what happened - juggling work, kids and his new, app-assisted sexual popularity - his tidy narrative of a spurned husband is his sole consolation. But if he ever wants to really understand where Rachel went and what really happened to his marriage, he is going to have to consider that he might not have seen it all that clearly in the first place . . .
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE:
'So sharp' GUARDIAN
'The most astonishingly brilliant Trojan horse of a novel' DOLLY ALDERTON
'Wonderful. Utterly blistering . . . A wildly entertaining, moving story' MARIAN KEYES
'Brimming with wisdom and utterly of this moment . . . Taffy Brodesser-Akner's debut is that rare and delicious treat: a page turner with heft' MARIA SEMPLE
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2020
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL
SHORTLISTED FOR THE FICTION: DÉBUT BOOK OF THE YEAR AT THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS
RUNNER-UP FOR THE MCKITTERICK PRIZE 2020
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE/JOHN LEONARD AWARD FOR BEST FIRST BOOK
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
When it comes to marriage, how miserable is too miserable? That’s the thorny question driving Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s wonderfully astute and unpredictable debut novel. Toby Fleishman has just discovered the easy intimacy of dating apps when his ex-wife, Rachel, abruptly disappears, leaving him with their two children. At first, you might peg Rachel as a career-driven monster, but as fans of Brodesser-Akner’s shrewd celebrity profiles know, looks can be deceiving. Guided by the mystery of Rachel’s whereabouts and her own thwarted ambition, Toby’s pal Libby ends up searching for the less-convenient truth behind the couple’s breakup. Fleishman Is in Trouble is the stealth feminist manifesto we didn’t know we needed.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Brodesser-Akner's sharp and tender-hearted debut centers on hapless 41-year-old New York hepatologist Toby Fleishman, recently separated from his driven wife, Rachel, and alternately surprised and semidisgusted to find his dating apps "crawling with women who wanted him," who prove it by sending him all manner of lewd pictures. After an increasingly rocky 14-year marriage, Toby has asked Rachel, who owns a talent agency and makes a lot more money than he does, for a divorce, because she is always angry and pays little attention to their two preteen kids. But then, as Toby is juggling new girlfriends, dying patients, and unhappy children, Rachel disappears, leaving Toby to cope with logistics more complicated than he anticipated. The novel is narrated by Toby's old college friend Libby (a device that's occasionally awkward), a former magazine journalist now bored with life as a housewife in New Jersey. Though both she and the novel are largely entrenched on Toby's side, Libby does eventually provide a welcome glimpse into Rachel's point of view. While novels about Manhattan marriages and divorces are hardly a scarce commodity, the characters in this one are complex and well-drawn, and the author's incisive sense of humor and keen observations of Upper West Side life sustain the momentum. This is a sardonically cheerful novel that readers will adore.
