The Glitch

by Elisabeth Cohen

Overview

A fast, funny, deeply hilarious debut—The Glitch is the story of a high-profile, TED Talk-ing, power-posing Silicon Valley CEO and mother of two who has it all under control, until a woman claiming to be a younger version of herself appears, causing a major glitch in her overscheduled, overstaffed, overworked life.

Shelley Stone, wife, mother, and CEO of the tech company Conch, is committed to living her most efficient life. She takes her "me time" at 3:30 a.m. on the treadmill, power naps while waiting in line, schedules sex with her husband for when they are already changing clothes, and takes a men's multivitamin because she refuses to participate in her own oppression.

But when she meets a young woman also named Shelley Stone who has the same exact scar on her shoulder, Shelley has to wonder: Is she finally buckling under all the pressure? Completely original, brainy, and laugh-out-loud funny, The Glitch introduces one of the most memorable characters in recent fiction and offers a riotous look into work, marriage, and motherhood in our absurd world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780525434641
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/09/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

ELISABETH COHEN majored in comparative literature at Princeton University and her work has appeared in Conjunctions, The Mississippi Review, The Cincinnati Review, McSweeney's Online and The Millions. She has an MA from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars and an MLS from the University of Maryland. She worked as a librarian before her current career as a technical writer. She lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and two sons.

Read an Excerpt

In the bedroom, before I fell asleep, I took out a notebook and wrote down a list of the things I wanted to tell her.
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The Glitch"
by .
Copyright © 2019 Elisabeth Cohen.
Excerpted by permission of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Editorial Reviews

"An ambitious and entertaining novel that centers on Shelley Stone, the chief executive of a fictional company… Cohen is a shrewd writer."

—Stephanie Danler, The New York Times Book Review


"The Glitch takes a hard look at the definition of work-life balance. Through hilarious antics and sensational story lines, Elisabeth Cohen encourages readers to slow down, take a breath and consider the perspective of a younger you. Would that person think you are living your best life?"

—Lincee Ray, The Washington Post


"The Glitch is so many things—corporate satire, techno thriller, poignant family drama, and hilarious portrait of a woman on the edge."

—Eliza Kennedy, Entertainment Weekly


"Razor-sharp…a hilarious send-up of tech culture and the notion of women 'having it all.'"

—Mackenzie Dawson, The New York Post


"Elisabeth Cohen has given us one of the most unforgettable characters in recent fiction. Shelley Stone is a workaholic CEO who is 'leaning in' so far she might just be losing her mind. This debut is a smart and delirious ride through a world of TED Talks, tech startups and efficiency junkies. I tore through The Glitch with delight!"

—Jennifer Close, author of Girls in White Dresses and The Hopefuls 


"Sometimes you read a book because it sounds really good, but then it turns out to be way, way more strange, original and thrilling than even claimed, and that’s what happened for me with Elisabeth Cohen's The Glitch."

—Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen 

 
"Shelley Stone is a genius comic creation and her story—one where she's struck by lightning, drives a potentially haunted car, and meets her doppelganger—is as madcap as it is fabulously relatable. She's a spreadsheet-crunching, yoga-practicing, flexitarian CEO over-achiever who is so utterly hilarious I couldn’t help but love her."

—Lucy Sykes, author of The Knockoff and Fitness Junkie 


"As an updated version of Allison Pearson’s I Don't Know How She Does It for our hyperconnected tech age, this debut novel is funny and smart with an appealing, driven protagonist."

—Lynnanne Pearson, Library Journal


"[A] painfully funny satire of the tech industry. In Shelley Stone, Cohen has created an aggressively unlikable yet captivating and entertaining heroine… Clever, original, and unabashedly silly fun."
 
—Kirkus (Starred Review)


"An excellent send-up... Elisabeth Cohen’s debut novel, The Glitch, does a marvelous job of questioning what women have to gain from the effort to 'lean in.'"

—The Rumpus 

From the Publisher

… an ambitious and entertaining novel…Cohen is a shrewd writer; her take on Shelley's life is slightly tongue-in-cheek, though the first-person narrative is never mocking.

The New York Times Book Review - Stephanie Danler

03/26/2018
In her witty debut, Cohen follows Shelley Stone, a high-powered, perfect-on-paper lightning-strike survivor and married mother of two whose life gets a bug in it. The CEO of Conch, which developed a behind-the-ear personal assistant, is the perfect corporate shill, calculating, artificial, and always on message, even when things start going wrong. Her four-year-old disappears from the beach while she and her husband take business calls; when she bizarrely meets someone who seems to be her 20-years-younger self, she advises young Shelley to take more coding classes but never mentions the lightning to come. When the media reports that a man killed himself because his Conch nagged him into it, her approach remains transactional. She’s on point whether she’s working toward a corporate merger or in marriage and motherhood, even as her husband begins suggesting a more balanced approach. Cohen’s novel premise and lead character—so incredibly well-drawn in her singlemindedness—are almost enough to sustain the story. But as the glitches in Shelley’s life begin to pile up, the author loses control of the narrative. By the time she wrests it back, the reader may wonder if a reboot along the way might have worked better. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Cassandra Campbell does a seamless job of transitioning between characters as she narrates this humorous audiobook. Shelley is CEO of Conch, a company that makes tech devices that make life easier for everyone but its employees. Campbell’s voice mirrors their work ethic in a carefully modulated voice not unlike those of virtual assistants Siri and Alexa. While on vacation, overachieving and overscheduled Shelley is distracted by business and loses her daughter. But a fan of her company, who is an inventor, has found the child. Soon, he requests Shelley’s feedback on his own invention, and strange things begin to happen that lead Shelley to question all her perceptions. Campbell delivers Enrique’s Spanish accent fluidly and portrays Shelley’s North Carolina nanny with easygoing charm. A.L.C. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2021 - AudioFile

★ 2018-03-05
A disturbingly ambitious woman finds herself challenged by mysterious crises—both personal and professional—in Cohen's painfully funny satire of the tech industry.In Shelley Stone, Cohen has created an aggressively unlikable yet captivating and entertaining heroine. Twenty years ago, as a directionless 20-year-old, Shelley was struck by lightning, a trauma for which she claims to be grateful despite the physical pain it inflicted. She doesn't care that the lightning shriveled her pleasure receptor or that she now scores low on the likability scale. What matters is that the lightning strike changed her brain in ways that made her into the driven woman she's become. Shelley is married and has two children—readers will concur with her amazement at having attracted financial-analyst husband Rafe, who goes along with her scheduled 12 minutes of daily sex even though his own pleasure principle remains intact—but she's primarily committed to her role as CEO of Conch, a company producing personal data repositories shaped like shells and worn behind users' ears. On a family vacation in France, Shelley's 4-year-old daughter, Nova, disappears while Shelley and Rafe are distracted by work calls; more disturbing, both parents continue their calls while searching for her. Fortunately, a stranger finds Nova, a stranger who somehow has Shelley's cellphone number and seems oddly excited to meet her when returning the child. Within weeks, Shelley meets another stranger: Michelle looks like a younger version of Shelley herself, down to the same scar on her arm, and has experienced the same childhood. Is a pre-lightning strike, alternate self possible? Or is Shelley having a nervous breakdown? Shelley is rattled but cynical enough to have her doubts. Meanwhile Conch suddenly faces serious quality control issues that she must solve to save her job. And then there's Rafe's plan to move with the kids to Brazil, with or without Shelley.Clever, original, and unabashedly silly fun.

Kirkus Reviews