CJ Hauser

CJ Hauser expands on her viral sensation “The Crane Wife” with ​17 further essays in this intimate, frank, and funny book about love in the 21st century Ten days after calling off her wedding, CJ Hauser went on an expedition to study the whooping crane. After a week wading through the gulf, she realized she'd almost signed up to live someone else's life. In this intimate, frank, and funny memoir-in-essays, Hauser releases herself from traditional narratives of happiness and goes looking for ways of living that leave room for the unexpected, making plenty of mistakes along the way. She kisses internet strangers and officiates a wedding. She re-reads Rebecca in the house her boyfriend once shared with his ex-wife and re-winds Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story to learn how not to lose yourself in a relationship. She thinks about Florence Nightingale at a robot convention and grief at John Belushi’s rock and roll gravesite, and the difference between those stories we’re asked to hold versus those we choose to carry. She writes about friends and lovers, blood family and chosen family, and asks what more expansive definitions of love might offer us all. Told with the late-night barstool directness of your wisest, most big-hearted friend, The Crane Wife is a book for everyone whose life doesn't look the way they thought it would; for everyone learning to find joy in the not-knowing; for everyone trying, if sometimes failing, to build a new sort of life story, a new sort of family, a new sort of home, to live in.

A Memoir in Essays

The Crane Wife

A memoir in essays that expands on the viral sensation “The Crane Wife” with a frank and funny look at love, intimacy, and self in the twenty-first century. From friends and lovers to blood family and chosen family, this “elegant masterpiece” (Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author of Hunger) asks what more expansive definitions of love might offer ​us all. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: TIME, THE GUARDIAN, GARDEN & GUN "Hauser builds their life's inventory out of deconstructed personal narratives, resulting in a reading experience that's rich like a complicated dessert—not for wolfing down but for savoring in small bites." —The New York Times “Hauser’s wry, introspective investigation of their assumptions about love will likely free readers to examine their own personal narratives as well ... ‘The rare happy ending I appreciate is one that makes room for the whole painful fact of the world at the same time it offers the reader some joy,’ they write. The Crane Wife embraces this philosophy again and again as Hauser excavates their past loves and losses, thoughtfully examines them and declares the pain of love to be worth the risk.” —BookPage Ten days after calling off their wedding, CJ Hauser went on an expedition to Texas to study the whooping crane. After a week wading through the gulf, they realized they'd almost signed up to live someone else's life. Hauser releases themself from traditional narratives of happiness and goes looking for ways of living that leave room for the unexpected, making plenty of mistakes along the way. They kiss Internet strangers and officiates at a wedding. They reread Rebecca in the house their boyfriend once shared with his ex-wife and rewinds Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story to learn how not to lose yourself in a relationship. They think about Florence Nightingale at a robot convention and grief at John Belushi’s rock and roll gravesite, and the difference between those stories we’re asked to hold versus those we choose to carry. Told with the late-night barstool directness of your wisest, most bighearted friend, The Crane Wife is a book for everyone whose life doesn't look the way they thought it would; for everyone learning to find joy in the not-knowing; for everyone trying, if sometimes failing, to build a new sort of life story, a new sort of family, a new sort of home, to live in.

Fresh talent CJ Hauser makes her literary debut with The From-Aways, an irreverent story of family, love, friendship, and lobsters, in the tradition of J. Courtney Sullivan’s Maine and Richard Russo’s Empire Falls. Two women come to Maine in search of family, and find more love, heartbreak, and friendship, than they’d ever imagined one little fishing town could hold. When Leah, a young New York reporter, meets Henry, she falls in love with everything about him: his freckles, green thumb, and tales of a Maine childhood. They marry quickly and Leah convinces Henry to move back to Menamon. As Leah builds a life there, reporting for The Menamon Star and vowing to be less of an emotional screw-up, the newlyweds are shocked to discover that they don’t know each other nearly so well as they thought they did. When Quinn’s mother dies, she tracks down the famous folk-singer father she’s never known, in Menamon. Scrappy and smart-mouthed, Quinn gets a job at the local paper, an apartment above the town diner, and tries to shore up the courage to meet her father. But falling in love with her roommate, Rosie, was never part of the plan. These two unruly women’s work relationship at The Star deepens into best-friendship when they stumble onto a story that shakes sleepy Menamon—and holds damaging repercussions for Leah’s husband and Quinn’s roommate both. As the town descends into turmoil, both women must decide what kind of lives they are willing to fight for.

A Novel

The From-Aways

Hazel Gaynor

Joshilyn Jackson

Emmi Itäranta

Nadia Hashimi

Holly Brown

Katherine Harbour

Mary McNear

Carrie La Seur

Rebecca Rotert

M. P. Cooley

Sarah Creech

New York Times bestselling novelist Joshilyn Jackson presents The New Voices in Fiction Sampler: Summer Selection. This free e-book sampler is a curated volume of excerpts from new and upcoming titles by debut fiction authors you'll want to get familiar with early on. The New Voices in Fiction Sampler: Summer Selection includes: An Introduction from Joshilyn Jackson and an excerpt from her latest novel, Someone Else's Love Story, on sale now. And excerpts from: The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor Up at Butternut Lake by Mary McNear The Pearl That Broke Its Shell by Nadia Hashimi Memory of Water by Emmi Itäranta The From-Aways by CJ Hauser Thorn Jack by Katherine Harbour Last Night at the Blue Angel by Rebecca Rotert Don't Try to Find Me by Holly Brown Ice Shear by M.P. Cooley The Home Place by Carrie La Seur Season of the Dragonflies by Sarah Creech Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson

Summer Selection

The New Voices in Fiction Sampler

Una mirada franca y divertida sobre el amor, la intimidad y la identidad en el siglo XXI. Diez días después de cancelar su boda, CJ Hauser se embarcó en una expedición a Texas para estudiar a la grulla trompetera. Tras una semana chapoteando en las marismas del golfo comprendió que había estado a punto de firmar un contrato para vivir la vida de otra persona. ¿Qué pasaría si decidiéramos liberarnos de la idea tradicional de felicidad y nos abriéramos a lo inesperado? Hauser se sirve de su propia experiencia para explorar las relaciones sentimentales, los fracasos amorosos, la intimidad y la identidad en el siglo XXI. Disecciona la personalidad de los protagonistas de Expediente X mientras intenta entender qué es el amor, rememora sus peores citas de Tinder, chatea con desconocidos que conversan como robots y analiza a Katharine Hepburn en Historias de Filadelfia para aprender a no perderse en una relación. Divertido, inclasificable y brutalmente sincero, este libro trata de cómo modelamos nuestra vida sentimental y nuestra comprensión de los demás a través de los relatos; una lectura para aquellos que aprenden a encontrar la alegría en el no saber e intentan, aunque a veces fracasen, construir particulares formas de vida, familia y hogar. «Sincera, divertida y cautivadora... Una invitación a redefinir qué es una historia de amor.» The Observer «Un libro emocionante y universal. Una fuente de placer e inspiración para cualquiera que se haya preguntado alguna vez: ¿cómo he llegado hasta aquí y qué pasa ahora?» The New York Times Book Review «Advertencia: enviarás por WhatsApp docenas de citas de este libro a tus amigos.» The Independent «Una elegante obra maestra. Irónico a la vez que cálido y generoso.» Roxane Gay «Inteligente y conmovedor, pone el acento en la complicada relación que todos tenemos con el amor.» Annabel Gutterman (Time)

La novia grulla

Durch Zufall hat es die beiden jungen Frauen Leah und Quinn gleichzeitig in das Küstenstädtchen Menamon in Maine verschlagen: Die frisch verheiratete Leah will mit ihrem Mann Henry hier, am Ort seiner Kindheit, eine Familie gründen. Quinn dagegen ist auf der Suche nach ihrem Vater, den sie nie kennengelernt hat, einem ehemaligen Folksänger, der sich in Menamon zur Ruhe gesetzt hat. Beide hoffen, hier ein neues Zuhause zu finden – doch sie müssen feststellen, dass die beschauliche Küstenidylle nicht hält, was sie verspricht, und das Glück schwerer zu fassen ist als erhofft. Da beschließen die Freundinnen, den Herausforderungen ihres neuen Lebens gemeinsam entgegenzutreten ... Mit viel Gefühl, Herz und Humor erzählt Dieser eine Sommer von neugefundenen Freundschaften, wiedergefundenen Vätern und zueinanderfindenden Herzen – und vom Glück, das sich meist dann auftut, wenn man es am wenigsten erwartet.

CJ Hauser

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