'Katie Yee is a storyteller extraordinaire' DELIA EPHRON, sister of Nora Ephron and author of Siracusa

'An absolutely delightful debut! An inspiring story of growth and wonder. Highly recommend!' ELIN HILDERBRAND, author of The Perfect Couple, now a major Netflix series

'A short, powerful and joyously life-affirming novel.' Red Magazine

'One of the most delightful debuts I've read in a long time' The New York Times

'Stands out as one of the most unusual literary debuts of the summer' Washington Post

'A gem of a novel, one that will make you think, make you feel, and make you laugh." ALISON ESPACH, author of The Wedding People

'A wry meditation on grief, healing, and reclaiming one's identity.' TIME Magazine

'A stand-out and must-read debut... Every paragraph is perfect' WEIKE WANG, author of Joan Is Okay

A man and a woman walk into a restaurant. The woman expects a lovely night filled with endless plates of samosas. Instead, she finds out her husband is having an affair with a woman named Maggie.

A short while after, her chest starts to ache. She walks into an examination room, where she finds out the pain in her breast isn't just heartbreak-it's cancer. She decides to call the tumor Maggie.

Unfolding in fragments over the course of the ensuing months, Maggie; Or, a Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar follows the narrator as she embarks on a journey of grief, healing, and reclamation. She starts talking to Maggie (the tumor), getting acquainted with her body's new inhabitant. She overgenerously creates a "Guide to My Husband: A User's Manual" for Maggie (the other woman), hoping to ease the process of discovering her ex-husband's whims and quirks. She turns her children's bedtime stories into retellings of Chinese folklore passed down by her own mother, in an attempt to make them fall in love with their shared culture-and to maybe save herself in the process.

In the style of Jenny Offill and the tradition of Nora Ephron's hilarious and devastating writing on heartbreak and womanhood, Maggie is a master class in transforming personal tragedy into a form of defiant comedy.

"'One of the most delightful debuts I've read in a long time' " - The New York Times

"'A short, powerful and joyously life-affirming novel.' " - Red Magazine

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'A light and nimble debut novel about some of life's most devastating events.
Between trips to the buffet at an Indian restaurant where they've gone on a date without their two young children, the narrator's husband drops this bombshell: "I'm having an affair." Days later, the narrator is diagnosed with breast cancer. If this feels like the lead-up to a tragedy, you wouldn't be wrong, and yet what follows is a spry novel that leapfrogs from hopeful to painful to poignant to silly to tender moments in the narrator's life: Telling her children the same bedtime stories based on Chinese myths that her mother told her; making lists of things she hates about doctors' offices; doing internet research on her husband's new love, Maggie; drafting a user manual for Sam, her soon-to-be ex-husband, with the intention of presenting it to his new girlfriend. ("He hates when his socks don't match. Also: he loves whimsical socks, but not whimsical ties.") "I think if enough bad things pile up, they inevitably cross over into comedy," the narrator reflects. This is true, though the comedy here is never dark or desperate or manic. Instead, the narrator's dignity and strength make this a novel that crackles with heartfelt intelligence and wit. Having named her tumor Maggie, the narrator decides not to tell Sam about it: a vengeful act wrapped in kindness. It's one of many steps she takes to affirm her sense of self-quirky, playful, more comfortable with logistics than feelings-and move on with her life. A funny, stirring novel about resilience.'