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I WANT YOU TO BE HAPPY
By: Jem Calder
A Novel
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
July 2026
On Sale: July 14, 2026
Featuring: Joey; Chuck
272 pages
ISBN: 0374620555
EAN: 9780374620554
Kindle: B0FR6M4PBG
Hardcover / e-Book
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Chuck and Joey meet in a bar. He’s in his mid-thirties; she’s twelve years younger. He long ago abandoned his ambition of being a novelist and works as a copywriter at a big ad agency. "Lead copywriter," he corrects himself. Joey is living paycheck to paycheck on her barista wages and privately dreams of making it as a poet. They go back to Chuck’s luxury flat—a world away from Joey’s cramped house-share, the crumbs in her bed. Soon, Joey is imagining a future between them and Chuck is moving on from a mistake in his recent past. Amazing, how meeting a new person can make you feel so new.
Funny, excruciating, and true, Jem Calder's I Want You to Be Happy is a sharp-eyed tale of two people searching for meaning and connection in modern times, missing the mark maybe, but still trying.
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