The Sane One: A Memoir

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In a coming-of-age memoir that’s “equal parts hysterical and moving” (Marie Claire), the co-creator of Hulu’s brilliant Pen15 grapples with the reappearance of her estranged father—and whether it’s possible to reconnect before it’s too late.

“Anna Konkle is generous enough to bring her comic sensibilities to a story that could have well have been a tragedy. She speaks for all the ‘sane ones’ out there who never agreed to play that part.”—Amy Sedaris

Throughout Anna Konkle’s childhood, her father was her hero—a hyper-charismatic, larger-than-life human resource manager at 7-Eleven. But their closeness was constantly interrupted by the screaming matches and heavy silences between him and her mother, eventually culminating in a bitter divorce that literally split the family house down the middle, with one parent on each side.

College felt like freedom, and Anna filled her time searching for the husband she’d never divorce and the orgasm she’d never had, while waiting tables at fancy restaurants and getting lackluster acting gigs, the strangest of which had her working celebrity Halloween parties. But just as she begins to thrive, her father starts to struggle. Not long after she moves to LA to pursue acting and writing, her dad’s increasingly erratic behavior forces her to cut off contact with him, until, years later, he knocks at her door.

Written in intimately beautiful prose, The Sane One is a tragicomic memoir of growing up, falling apart, getting older, and trying to come back together while there’s still time.

Anna Konkle is the co-creator and co-star of the critically acclaimed Hulu series Pen15. The series won the Gotham Award for Breakthrough Series and was nominated for four primetime Emmys, three WGA Awards, and three Critics Choice Awards. Time recognized Pen15 as one of 12 Exciting New TV Shows created by women. Konkle has been named one of Variety’s 10 Comics To Watch, as well as one of Hollywood's 50 Most Powerful TV Showrunners by the Hollywood Reporter. Originally from the East Coast, Konkle is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.