Grief, envy, and desire drive this hilarious and disarmingly tender novel by a master of humor and heart.
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“Razor-sharp, darkly humorous, yet finely tuned to emotional truth, Homewrecker is a novel that delights and haunts.”—Yiyun Li, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Things in Nature Merely Grow
“Homewrecker is a zany, beautiful wonder that only Becky Mandelbaum could dream up. Hyper-sharp wit paired with a line-level precision that is matched by a willingness to dive headfirst into hilarious absurdity. And somehow it all feels natural, real, of the human heart. You will audibly laugh reading this absolute pleasure of a novel.”—Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, New York Times bestselling author of Chain-Gang All-Stars
“The unforgettable narrator of Homewrecker is a young woman as haunted by artistic ambition as she is by grief and yearning. Mandelbaum understands that people are rarely at their most admirable when they’re at their most vulnerable, and with that truth, she created a profoundly moving story that’s also very funny. Inventive and fearless, Homewrecker defies expectations at every turn. What a fantastic read!”—Laura Moriarty, author of Sunlight Finds You
“Hilarious . . . You won’t be able to put it down.”—Pam Houston, author of Animals Taught Me Everything
“Homewrecker is a hilarious and heart-wrenching novel. The story is propulsive and surprising, and the characters are so deliciously complex that I could not put this book down. Mandelbaum is an absolute weirdo and readers are so lucky that she is writing today.”—Nicky Gonzalez, author of Mayra
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When your ex-boyfriend offers to pay you to move in with him and his fiancée, you should definitely say no. Piper says yes.
Three years ago, Aaron, her live-in boyfriend, mysteriously ghosted her. Now he’s suddenly reappeared and wants a favor? And yet, from where Piper sits—in her dead brother’s bedroom in Vinland, Kansas, her depressed mom down the hall, her unfinished children’s book gathering dust, and her bank account empty—Aaron’s unusual but lucrative offer sounds like it just might be her ticket out. All she has to do is spend some time as his guest in Bellingham, Washington, helping his fiancée, Victoria, illustrate her children’s book.
In Bellingham, Piper falls immediately in love with the couple’s charming hundred-year-old house, partly covered in bizarre murals painted by its former inhabitant—a woman whose restless spirit still hums within the walls. Piper is stunned by Aaron’s transformation from broke hipster artist to successful video game designer. And she’s unnerved by Victoria: gorgeous, sophisticated, driven—everything Piper feels she isn’t. Drowning in heartbreak, consumed by lust, and haunted by the guilty secret she carries about her brother’s death, Piper will use her time there to carry out an otherworldly plan to reclaim what she’s lost—her art, her future, and maybe even Aaron. Unless her scheme brings everything crashing down.
A darkly funny, achingly wise ghost story about loss, jealousy, love lost and found—and how our deepest fears will haunt us until we finally confront them.
©Cocoa Laney
Becky Mandelbaum is the author of the novel The Bright Side Sanctuary for Animals and the story collection Bad Kansas, which won the High Plains Book Award for First Book and was a Kansas Notable Book. Her work has appeared in The Pushcart Book of Twenty-First Century Poetry and Prose and received the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. Originally from Kansas, she now lives in Bellingham, Washington.