Maggie: Or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar by Katie Yee

Named one of this summer’s Best Beach Reads by the New York Times and praised by Delia Ephron and Elin Hilderbrand, Katie Yee’s debut novel tells the story of an unnamed narrator who learns of her husband’s affair just before being diagnosed with breast cancer.

After the diagnosis, the narrator—a mother of two—names her tumour Maggie, the same name as her husband's lover. The novel unfolds in fragments as she moves through the motions of caring for her children, divorcing her husband, and undergoing cancer treatment.

In the aftermath, she begins to reclaim her identity—keeping alive her dream of becoming a children’s book author through the bedtime stories she tells her kids, and learning how to live without her husband, but with the steady support of her best friend, Darlene.

This is the kind of novel that only comes around every so often. What I loved most is that this isn’t just a story of marriage or illness. It’s about motherhood, daughterhood, friendship, endings, and new beginnings. It’s a reminder that life goes on, in all its forms, and is ever changing. The fragmented structure (with no chapter breaks) adds lightness to heavier themes.

Devastatingly funny and wholly original, Katie Yee’s debut is on sale July 22.

Katie Yee by Alex Burgess

Katie Yee is a writer from Brooklyn. She has received fellowships from the Center for Fiction, the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, and Kundiman. Her work has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, No Tokens, The Believer, the Washington Square Review, Triangle House, Epiphany, and Literary Hub. By day, she works at the Brooklyn Museum. By night, she writes, usually under the watch of her judgmental rescue dog, Ollie.

Maggie: Or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar by Katie Yee is on sale July 22nd and is available for pre-order now in hardcover, eBook and audiobook formats. Check Bookshop.org or Libro.fm to support an indie near you.

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