The Wedding People (Barnes & Noble Book Club Edition)

by Alison Espach

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

The author of the acclaimed Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance (one of our former Fiction Monthly Picks) cordially invites us to the Cornwell Inn. With a tender heart and a wry sense of humor, this is a thoughtful gem of a story.

This Barnes & Noble Book Club Edition has a beautiful cover with exclusive foil and spot gloss—reminiscent of the shimmering sea and glinting glass—and includes a reading group guide exclusively for Barnes & Noble customers.

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250385352
Publisher:	Holt, Henry & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	07/30/2024
Edition description:	Barnes & Noble Book Club Edition
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	176,228
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.40(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Alison Espach is the author of the novels The Adults, a New York Times Editors' Choice and a Barnes & Noble Discover pick, and Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance, which was named a best book of 2022 by the Chicago Tribune and NPR. Her short stories and essays have appeared in McSweeney’s, Vogue, Outside, Joyland, and other places. She is a professor of creative writing at Providence College in Rhode Island.

Editorial Reviews

Helen Laser gives a nuanced performance of this audiobook about an unlikely friendship between two women. On the cusp of 40, Phoebe is divorced, infertile, stalled in her academic career, and her beloved cat has died. She goes to an exclusive Newport, Rhode Island, resort, where she is the only guest who is not there for a wedding. In the elevator, she meets Lila, the bride, who is snide and confident but also seems lonely among her family and friends. Laser creates an immersive portrait of the glamorous locale and its privileged characters of all ages and genders. She brings forth the story's wit and sharp observations, and is especially adept at showcasing the poignant exchanges between the two women. Those sensitive to mentions of suicidal ideation should take note. M.J. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

JULY 2024 - AudioFile

Witty dialogue is just a bonus in this engrossing read centering on complex women making life-changing decisions. Recommend to readers who enjoy Sally Rooney, Curtis Sittenfeld, or Elizabeth Berg.”
—Library Journal (starred review)

“The Wedding People is a wickedly funny and deeply satisfying novel about a woman with nothing to lose, armed with a green dress, some chocolate wine, and a coconut pillow, cut loose to cause delightful mayhem. It’s a story of lovers who turn into strangers, strangers who turn into friends, and the weird and wonderful connections that make us feel truly alive. I loved it.”
—Jenny Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Pineapple Street

“The Wedding People is my very favorite kind of novel—hilarious and witty with enormous heart and characters I fell in love with. I was delighted to be at this wedding, in the middle of the drama and gossip, watching the entanglements of friendships old and new. I haven’t stopped talking about this book since I finished it, and I won’t stop until I’ve made everyone I know read it . . . so read it! Now! You can thank me later.”
—Jennifer Close, bestselling author of Marrying the Ketchups

“Alison Espach! How does she do it? I mean, really—how? The Wedding People is so utterly, ringingly true it feels less like fiction than like a field guide to personhood. It's so funny and romantic that I sometimes laughed out loud and sometimes got actual goosebumps. I tore through it like I didn't have a disordered deficit of attention. It's a perfect novel. I loved it.”
—Catherine Newman, author of We All Want Impossible Things

From the Publisher

★ 03/01/2024

Espach's latest (after Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance) brings Phoebe Stone to an exclusive small hotel in Newport, RI, where she quickly discovers that everyone else is there for a six-day, million-dollar wedding extravaganza. Phoebe is there to kill herself. After several unsuccessful rounds of IVF, losing her husband to another woman, and the death of her cat, she figures the solution is to give up on life, but in style at this dream vacation spot. Phoebe has no qualms about telling the wedding's bride, Lila, why she is there, and Lila is as incensed—a suicide during her wedding week is not on the agenda. Lila recently lost her father, whose dying wish was for her to get married, and he left her the money to pay for the lavish ceremony. Lila harangues Phoebe into joining the wedding festivities, and they spend quite a bit of time together. Sometimes, it is easier to confide in a relative stranger than a loved one, and both women learn quite a bit about each other during the wedding week. VERDICT Witty dialogue is just a bonus in this engrossing read centering on complex women making life-changing decisions. Recommend to readers who enjoy Sally Rooney, Curtis Sittenfeld, or Elizabeth Berg.—Stacy Alesi

Library Journal