“A bold and wholly satisfying novel about power, ambition, and the price women must often pay for their dreams.” —Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow
Three fierce women connected to a billionaire film mogul collide at a Hollywood party in this richly observed novel about female ambition, complicity, and privilege.
Zanne Klein never planned to be a personal assistant to Hollywood royalty Ted and Holly Stabler. But a decade in at thirty-eight, that's exactly how she spends her days, earning six figures to make sure the movie mogul and his family have everything they could ever dream of and more.
However, today is no ordinary day at the Stabler estate. Tonight, everyone who's anyone will be there for the Hollywood event of the season, and if the party’s a success, that chief of staff job Zanne's been chasing may soon be hers. Which means she can buy a house, give her girlfriend the life she deserves, pay off her student loans.
Nothing's going to get in Zanne’s way—not disgruntled staff, not a nosy reporter, not even a runaway hostess. But when Ted’s former business partner, Phoebe Lee, unexpectedly shows up right before go time, Zanne suddenly has a catastrophe unfolding before her—one with explosive consequences. As the truth comes out and Zanne realizes how deeply entangled she's become in the Stablers' world, she must decide if the sacrifices she's made for the job are worth the moral price she has to pay.
“The Work Wife is that rare book that illuminates a world we never knew existed while also making us feel so much less alone in everyday life.” —Julia Phillips, author of National Book Award finalist Disappearing Earth
Genre: Literary Fiction
Three fierce women connected to a billionaire film mogul collide at a Hollywood party in this richly observed novel about female ambition, complicity, and privilege.
Zanne Klein never planned to be a personal assistant to Hollywood royalty Ted and Holly Stabler. But a decade in at thirty-eight, that's exactly how she spends her days, earning six figures to make sure the movie mogul and his family have everything they could ever dream of and more.
However, today is no ordinary day at the Stabler estate. Tonight, everyone who's anyone will be there for the Hollywood event of the season, and if the party’s a success, that chief of staff job Zanne's been chasing may soon be hers. Which means she can buy a house, give her girlfriend the life she deserves, pay off her student loans.
Nothing's going to get in Zanne’s way—not disgruntled staff, not a nosy reporter, not even a runaway hostess. But when Ted’s former business partner, Phoebe Lee, unexpectedly shows up right before go time, Zanne suddenly has a catastrophe unfolding before her—one with explosive consequences. As the truth comes out and Zanne realizes how deeply entangled she's become in the Stablers' world, she must decide if the sacrifices she's made for the job are worth the moral price she has to pay.
“The Work Wife is that rare book that illuminates a world we never knew existed while also making us feel so much less alone in everyday life.” —Julia Phillips, author of National Book Award finalist Disappearing Earth
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"Written with great verve and flair, The Work Wife is a fascinating look at the sacrifices, challenges, and choices of three complicated women intertwined with a Hollywood mogul. A rewarding read, deeply satisfying from start to finish, this is truly one heck of a debut from Alison B. Hart." - Jami Attenberg
"Alison B. Hart's debut novel, The Work Wife, takes us behind the scenes and into the carefully constructed lives of the Hollywood elite and their staff. It's not pretty. Feminist and furious and sometimes very funny, The Work Wife is bursting with love for these wounded characters." - Marcy Dermansky
"The Work Wife deftly explores what labor and ambition mean, in our current moment when we are all questioning our connections to both. A novel with nerve, this is the work of an empathetic mind, deeply curious about what women are asked to sacrifice to make it to the top." - Kaitlyn Greenidge
"The Work Wife digs deep beneath Hollywood's glittery surface, exposing not just the messy lives of the ultra rich and the debt-saddled assistants who serve them, but the real cost of a world in which women's talents are routinely sacrificed to preserve male egos." - Mira Jacob
"Alison B. Hart has created a beautifully written, feminist page-turner. Filled with biting commentary and insights into #metoo reckoning and the invisibility of behind-the-scenes 'women's work, ' The Work Wife is a dazzling debut. I couldn't put it down." - Angie Kim
"This timely, wry debut about female Hollywood creatives who are fed up with their delegation to the dark side of Tinseltown tackles major subjects--ambition, sisterhood, misogyny--with intimacy and heart. Witty, clever, and propulsively plotted--I dare you to put The Work Wife down." - Courtney Maum
"A page-turner, an eye-opener, a heartbreaker, a delight, The Work Wife is that rare book that illuminates a world we never knew existed while also making us feel so much less alone in everyday life." - Julia Phillips
"The Work Wife is a bold and wholly satisfying novel about power, ambition, and the price women must often pay for their dreams. I gobbled it up." - Emma Straub
"Alison B. Hart's debut novel, The Work Wife, takes us behind the scenes and into the carefully constructed lives of the Hollywood elite and their staff. It's not pretty. Feminist and furious and sometimes very funny, The Work Wife is bursting with love for these wounded characters." - Marcy Dermansky
"The Work Wife deftly explores what labor and ambition mean, in our current moment when we are all questioning our connections to both. A novel with nerve, this is the work of an empathetic mind, deeply curious about what women are asked to sacrifice to make it to the top." - Kaitlyn Greenidge
"The Work Wife digs deep beneath Hollywood's glittery surface, exposing not just the messy lives of the ultra rich and the debt-saddled assistants who serve them, but the real cost of a world in which women's talents are routinely sacrificed to preserve male egos." - Mira Jacob
"Alison B. Hart has created a beautifully written, feminist page-turner. Filled with biting commentary and insights into #metoo reckoning and the invisibility of behind-the-scenes 'women's work, ' The Work Wife is a dazzling debut. I couldn't put it down." - Angie Kim
"This timely, wry debut about female Hollywood creatives who are fed up with their delegation to the dark side of Tinseltown tackles major subjects--ambition, sisterhood, misogyny--with intimacy and heart. Witty, clever, and propulsively plotted--I dare you to put The Work Wife down." - Courtney Maum
"A page-turner, an eye-opener, a heartbreaker, a delight, The Work Wife is that rare book that illuminates a world we never knew existed while also making us feel so much less alone in everyday life." - Julia Phillips
"The Work Wife is a bold and wholly satisfying novel about power, ambition, and the price women must often pay for their dreams. I gobbled it up." - Emma Straub
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