The Crane Wife
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- £7.99
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
Brought to you by Penguin.
Ten days after calling off her wedding, CJ Hauser went on an expedition to study the whooping crane. After a week wading through the gulf, she realised she had almost signed up to live somebody else's life.
In this intimate, frank and funny memoir in essays, CJ Hauser lets go of 'how life was supposed to be' and goes looking for more honest ways of living. She kisses internet strangers, officiates a wedding, visits a fertility clinic. She reads Rebecca in the house her new boyfriend shared with his ex-wife and rewinds Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story to ask if you can ever have a fresh start with an old love. She writes about friends and lovers, grief and heartbreak, blood family and chosen family, and asks what more expansive definitions of love might offer us all.
The Crane Wife is a book for anyone whose life doesn't look the way they thought it would; for anyone trying, if sometimes failing, to find joy in the unexpected.
'Outstanding' Roxane Gay
'Funny, exciting, vulnerable - truly visionary' Alexander Chee
'What a fantastic, original, funny and touching voice! C J Hauser is a wondrous writer. This book will give so much happiness.' CRESSIDA CONNOLLY, author of AFTER THE PARTY
'Brilliant and beautiful... An absolute must-read' FRANCES CHA, author of IF I HAD YOUR FACE
'Compassionate and funny and brave. CJ is a master story weaver. I was left wanting more, in the best way possible.' CHARLIE GILMOUR, author of FEATHERHOOD
'A thrillingly original deconstruction of desire and its many configurations' Publishers Weekly
'Bold and brilliant and psychologically exquisite, CJ Hauser is a deeply gifted and generous writer. THE CRANE WIFE is enthralling.' CHARLOTTE FOX WEBER, author of WHAT WE WANT
© Christina Joyce Hauser 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Ten days after CJ Hauser called off her wedding, she went to Texas to join a scientific study of Earth’s oldest living bird species, the whooping crane, as research for a novel. “The Crane Wife”, her 2019 account of the experience for the Paris Review, became a much shared and talked-about meditation on how your needs can become suppressed and compromised in unhealthy relationships. Featuring that piece, this collection ostensibly serves as Hauser’s memoir but it’s also an honest, thought-provoking and ultimately optimistic rumination on desire, love, family and friendship—one that draws many relatable truths from very personal experiences. Vibrant and self-deprecating, heart-wrenching and hilarious, Hauser is a hugely engaging writer full of smart pop-culture references. But as she recounts adventures and misadventures in graveyards and gardens, at weddings and robot conventions, it becomes clear that her greatest talent is for exploring her life and sense of self in a way that encourages you to rethink your own place in the world.