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Book synopsis

A Chinese American woman spins tragedy into comedy when her life falls apart in a taut, wry debut novel that grapples with grief, motherhood, and myths-perfect for fans of Joan Is Okay and Crying in H Mart.

A man and a woman walk into a restaurant. The woman expects a lovely night filled with endless plates of samosas. Instead, she finds out her husband is having an affair with a woman named Maggie.

A short while after, her chest starts to ache. She walks into an examination room, where she finds out the pain in her breast isn''t just heartbreak-it''s cancer. She decides to call the tumor Maggie.

Unfolding in fragments over the course of the ensuing months, Maggie; Or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar follows the narrator as she embarks on a journey of grief, healing, and reclamation. She starts talking to Maggie (the tumor), getting acquainted with her body''s new inhabitant. She overgenerously creates a "Guide to My Husband: A User''s Manual" for Maggie (the other woman), hoping to ease the process of discovering her ex-husband''s whims and quirks. She turns her children''s bedtime stories into retellings of Chinese folklore passed down by her own mother, in an attempt to make them fall in love with their shared culture-and to maybe save herself in the process.

In the style of Jenny Offill and the tradition of Nora Ephron''s hilarious and devastating writing on heartbreak and womanhood, Maggie is a master class in transforming personal tragedy into a form of defiant comedy.

''Katie Yee is a storyteller extraordinaire'' DELIA EPHRON
''A stand-out and must-read debut... Every paragraph is perfect'' WEIKE WANG
''Miraculously funny, a tender and wisecracking missive from the midst of catastrophe'' HILARY LEICHTER

Book details

• Full title: Maggie
• Subtitle: Or, A Man and a Woman Walk into a Bar
• Author: Katie Yee
• Language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224
• EAN: 9781840918809
• ID: 49174580
• Publisher: Octopus Publishing Group
• Weight: 140 g
• Dimensions: 198 × 129 mm
• Date of publishing: 02. July 2026

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