I Want You to Be Happy Format: Hardback

Jem Calder

ISBN 10: 0374620555 / ISBN 13: 9780374620554

Published by MacMillan Publishers, 2026

About this Item

Unread copy in mint condition.

Seller Inventory # VH9780374620554

Bibliographic Details

• Title: I Want You to Be Happy Format: Hardback
• Publisher: MacMillan Publishers
• Publication Date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0374620555
• ISBN 13: 9780374620554
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: As New

About this title

Synopsis

Named a "Best Book of 2026 So Far" by The New Yorker

A tender, witty, and sharp debut novel about the passions and peculiarities of modern love, by “an extraordinarily gifted writer” (Sally Rooney).

Chuck and Joey meet in a bar. He’s in his mid-thirties; she’s twelve years younger. He long ago abandoned his ambition of being a novelist and works as a copywriter at a big ad agency. "Lead copywriter," he corrects himself. Joey is living paycheck to paycheck on her barista wages and privately dreams of making it as a poet. They go back to Chuck’s luxury flat―a world away from Joey’s cramped house-share, the crumbs in her bed. Soon, Joey is imagining a future between them and Chuck is moving on from a mistake in his recent past. Amazing, how meeting a new person can make you feel so new.

Funny, excruciating, and true, Jem Calder's I Want You to Be Happy is a sharp-eyed tale of two people searching for meaning and connection in modern times, missing the mark maybe, but still trying.

About the Author

Jem Calder was born in Cambridge and lives and works in London. His fiction has been published in The Stinging Fly and Granta. He is the author of the short-story collection Reward System.