Fleishman Is in Trouble

A blistering satirical novel about marriage, divorce and modern love, by one of the most exciting new voices in American fiction

One of Esquire UK's 'Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2019' and Literary Hub's 'Most Anticipated Books of 2019'

Finally free from his nightmare of a marriage, Toby Fleishman is ready for a life of Tinder dating and weekend-only parental duties. But as he optimistically looks to a future of few responsibilities, 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 . . .

Short-listed for National Book Awards (Fiction) 2019

“"This glorious debut has the humor of Maria Semple, the heart of Meg Wolitzer, the lustiness of Philip Roth, and a voice that is pure. It's wild and wonderful and goes in so many directions, each with profundity--my favorite thing that novels can do. How does one's favorite journalist become one's new favorite novelist? With this book." --Emma Straub "When his ex drops the kids off and doesn't come back, a father of two revisits the choices that led to this moment. He searches for answers, hilariously and heartbreakingly avoiding the darkest questions. Brodesser-Akner's debut is a referendum on marriage, friendship, and how we live (and love) right now." -- People "Whip-smart, gleefully scatological . . . [Brodesser-Akner] aims a perfect gimlet eye at the city's relentless self-regard. . . . But her best trick may be the novel's narrator: An elusive presence identified at first only as an old friend of Toby's from their study-abroad days, she turns out to be both the book's Trojan horse and--in a brilliant third-act pivot--its greatest gift, transforming a fizzy comedy of manners into something genuinely, unexpectedly profound." -- Entertainment Weekly "Many novelists have written excellent fictional indictments of interpersonal and systemic sexism. Not since Teju Cole's Open City --a very different book in all other respects--has a novelist put the reader on the wrong side the way Brodesser-Akner does. To do so, she uses a lot of intelligence, a lot of anger, a great sense of humor and a whole new variation on the magic we know from her magazine work. The result is a maddening, unsettling masterpiece, and, yes, you will be moved and inexplicably grateful at the end." --NPR "In her witty and well-observed debut, Taffy Brodesser-Akner updates the miserable-matrimony novel, dropping it squarely in our times. . . . Brodesser-Akner has written a potent, upsetting and satisfying novel, illustrating how the marital pledge--build our life together--overlooks a key fact: There are two lives." -- The New York Times Book Review "Electric . . . Brodesser-Akner's first foray into fiction--set in Manhattan, the Hamptons, and Israel--is funny, stylish, and insightful, whether describing men's challenged communication skills or the knife juggler's agility required to maintain a modern marriage."-- O: The Oprah Magazine "Taffy Brodesser-Akner's sharp debut novel is packed with humor and heart. In it, the titular trouble begins when Toby Fleishman realizes that Rachel--his wife of 15 years, from whom he's now separated--is missing. Where has she gone, and why? This book will have you racing through the pages to find the answers." -- Southern Living "Everything you could wish for in a satisfying summer read . . . Taffy Brodesser-Akner's page-turner doubles as a satirical take on modern relationships." -- Women's Health”

“This glorious debut has the humor of Maria Semple, the heart of Meg Wolitzer, the lustiness of Philip Roth, and a voice that is pure. It’s wild and wonderful and goes in so many directions, each with profundity—my favorite thing that novels can do. How does one's favorite journalist become one's new favorite novelist? With this book.”—Emma Straub

“When his ex drops the kids off and doesn’t come back, a father of two revisits the choices that led to this moment. He searches for answers, hilariously and heartbreakingly avoiding the darkest questions. Brodesser-Akner’s debut is a referendum on marriage, friendship, and how we live (and love) right now.”—People

“Whip-smart, gleefully scatological . . . [Brodesser-Akner] aims a perfect gimlet eye at the city’s relentless self-regard. . . . But her best trick may be the novel’s narrator: An elusive presence identified at first only as an old friend of Toby’s from their study-abroad days, she turns out to be both the book’s Trojan horse and—in a brilliant third-act pivot—its greatest gift, transforming a fizzy comedy of manners into something genuinely, unexpectedly profound.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Many novelists have written excellent fictional indictments of interpersonal and systemic sexism. Not since Teju Cole’s Open City—a very different book in all other respects—has a novelist put the reader on the wrong side the way Brodesser-Akner does. To do so, she uses a lot of intelligence, a lot of anger, a great sense of humor and a whole new variation on the magic we know from her magazine work. The result is a maddening, unsettling masterpiece, and, yes, you will be moved and inexplicably grateful at the end.”—NPR

“In her witty and well-observed debut, Taffy Brodesser-Akner updates the miserable-matrimony novel, dropping it squarely in our times. . . . Brodesser-Akner has written a potent, upsetting and satisfying novel, illustrating how the marital pledge—build our life together—overlooks a key fact: There are two lives.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Electric . . . Brodesser-Akner’s first foray into fiction—set in Manhattan, the Hamptons, and Israel—is funny, stylish, and insightful, whether describing men’s challenged communication skills or the knife juggler’s agility required to maintain a modern marriage.”—O: The Oprah Magazine

“Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s sharp debut novel is packed with humor and heart. In it, the titular trouble begins when Toby Fleishman realizes that Rachel—his wife of 15 years, from whom he’s now separated—is missing. Where has she gone, and why? This book will have you racing through the pages to find the answers.”—Southern Living

“Everything you could wish for in a satisfying summer read . . . Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s page-turner doubles as a satirical take on modern relationships.”—Women’s Health

Taffy Brodesser-Akner is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine. She has also written for GQ, ESPN the Magazine, and many other publications. Fleishman Is in Trouble is her first novel.

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