Maggie; Or, A Man and a Woman Walk into a Bar

Yee’s appealing debut centers on an unnamed Chinese American woman whose husband has an affair. The narrator and her husband, Sam, are out on a date when he abruptly informs her that he’s leaving her for a woman named Maggie, whom he met through his job as a corporate headhunter. Later, the narrator, a stay-at-home mom, feels a dull ache in her breast. Her best friend, Darlene, says she’s “manifesting [her] pain,” but a trip to the doctor reveals that it is, in fact, cancer, a development the narrator conceals from her soon-to-be-ex-husband. Meanwhile, she fields questions from her four-year-old daughter and eight-year-old son about why their father is suddenly on so many business trips, and weaves Chinese folklore she learned from her mother into the children’s bedtime stories. Despite the drama inherent in a marriage’s collapse and a potentially life-threatening illness, the novel unfolds at a sedate pace, with frequent digressions into the past, including the protagonist’s memories of her late mother, a seamstress, and Sam’s very different upbringing as the child of wealthy white parents. Still, Yee is an attentive storyteller, empathetic to all her characters, even Maggie. Readers drawn to nuanced domestic narratives will find much to savor. Agent: Duvall Osteen, UTA. (July)