

Literary fiction
Maggie; or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar
Debut
Early Release
by Katie Yee
Quick take
In this tragicomic tour de force, a young mother rebuilds her sense of self after a divorce and cancer diagnosis.
Good to know
Female friendships
Mama drama
Infidelity
Under 200 pages
Synopsis
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.
Read a sample
Get an early look from the first pages of Maggie; or, A Man and a Woman Walk Into a Bar.
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Thoughtful, wry portraits of women starting over after the end of a marriage.
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Lovely, observational writing that balances heartbreak, grief, and illness with joy, connection, and hope.