Em's Awful Good Fortune

Part dysfunctional marriage, part global romp, this is not your typical expat story. Em’s Awful Good Fortune is a deeply personal, marriage coming-apart-at-the-seams look at the struggle between a woman’s desire for partnership and her need for identity. Fueled by twin demons, love and rage, Em stomps her way around the world coming to terms with the fantasy of having it all: husband, kids, and a career. Em is not just married; it’s more like being handcuffed to her husband’s international career. Her life reads like a fantasy, bouncing between Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Seoul. But—the good fortune is all her husband’s: Em is just the tagalong wife.

Maxfield’s compelling, non-linear story explores the expatriate lifestyle through the lens of a crumbling marriage, while at the same time tracing the lasting impact of sexual assault and PTSD. Em’s journey exposes the dark corners of this seemingly privileged world: loneliness, depression, infidelity, and loss of career. An empowering, uncomfortably funny narrative about compromise that every woman should read. As Em begins to value her needs before those of her husband’s career, she stops letting herself be dragged along for the ride—and ultimately emerges triumphant.


Genre: Literary Fiction

"Em's Awful Good Fortune brilliantly skewers the rarified life of the overly precious 'tagalong' expat life. The novel reads like your best friend's blisteringly funny diary, especially if your best friend happens to be a stand-up comic with a knife's-edge wit who can make mincemeat out of any philandering husband. . . . Find a chair, open the first page of this sizzling story, and fly around the world on that trip you've been itching to take all year." - Susan Conley

"Em's Awful Good Fortune takes its reader across the world and deep into the heart of its trapped, privileged, suffering, and, ultimately, invincible narrator. Equally funny and brutal, this novel breathes vivid life into a much maligned and little understood "type"--the expat wife. Maxfield poured her heart into the writing, and it shows: the pages crackle." - Junot Díaz

"With wit, wisdom and remarkable candor, Marcie Maxfield shines a light on a secret side of the jet-set world. As a fellow expat, she had me nodding and laughing--and sometimes groaning--in recognition of her experiences. Marcie describes so accurately the free-falling feeling of arriving in a new country. Any woman who has ever sacrificed something of herself for her family will empathize with the good fortune that comes with a hidden cost." - Jo Furniss

"Em's Awful Good Fortune is ferocious and hilarious, with a writing voice so unique it will knock your socks off. This breathless story of a woman's attempt at balancing love with self-love as she navigates the few joys and many pitfalls of the tagalong life will keep you reading until the wee hours, and might even change the way you view marriage, travel, and feminism." - Corine Gantz