Description

A TIME ‘New Books You Should Read’
A People magazine ‘Book of the Week’
A New York Times Editors’ Choice

With a foreword by Elizabeth Strout

‘Electric: with wit, with rage, with grief, with the kind of prose that makes you both laugh and thrill to the darker, spikier emotions just barely visible under the bright surface. What a wonderful collection of stories’ Lauren Groff

Another day! And then another and another and another. It seemed as if it would all go on forever in that exquisitely boring and beautiful way. But of course it wouldn’t; everyone knows that.

In this collection, Hilma Wolitzer invites us inside the private world of domestic bliss, seen mostly through the lens of Paulie and Howard’s gloriously ordinary marriage.

From hasty weddings to meddlesome neighbours, ex-wives who just won’t leave, to sleepless nights spent worrying about unanswered chainmail, Wolitzer captures the tensions, contradictions and unexpected detours of daily life with wit, candour and an acutely observant eye.

Including stories first published in magazines in the 1960s and 1970s – alongside new writing from Wolitzer, now in her nineties – Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket reintroduces a beloved writer to be embraced by a new generation of readers.

‘A fascinating time capsule of womanhood, marriage and motherhood over the last century … A fabulous book’ Emma Straub

‘Immensely gratifying, poignant, funny … Breathtaking’ Elizabeth Strout, from the foreword

Publisher Review

Oh, how I loved these stories! I've been a fan of Hilma Wolitzer since my teens and this collection offers everything I adore about her novels: each story dazzles with an unflinching portrayal of a woman at a pivotal moment in her life -- Joanna Rakoff, author of MY SALINGER YEAR Wit, wisdom and warmth form the foundation of this sparkling collection. Wolitzer is a natural-born storyteller whose rigour, attention and generosity create miracles on each and every page -- Tayari Jones Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket is electric: with wit, with rage, with grief, with the kind of prose that makes you both laugh and thrill to the darker, spikier emotions just barely visible under the bright surface. What a wonderful collection of stories -- Lauren Groff Wolitzer doesn't just brilliantly capture what we imagine is recognisable ordinary life, she reveals the unique magic that is so absolutely transcendent, it makes us see and live in the world differently ... A fabulous collection brimming with the compassion that Wolitzer is known for -- Caroline Leavitt [A] sage collection of stories ... Throughout, Wolitzer captures the feel of each moment with characters who charm with their honesty. The result is a set of engaging time capsules. * Publishers Weekly * A fascinating time capsule of womanhood, marriage and motherhood over the last century ... a fabulous book -- Emma Straub Immensely gratifying, poignant, funny ... Breathtaking -- Elizabeth Strout (from the foreword) Hilma Wolitzer sees the miraculous, and the tragic, in modest lives and domestic particulars - wonders that might pass as ordinary events to the untrained eye. She magnifies the world. She insists, in one gorgeous sentence after another, that there's no such thing as a usual hour, let alone a usual day -- Michael Cunningham With her trademark dry wit and abiding compassion, Wolitzer explores the telling details of everyday life in ways that are unsettling, insightful and wholly original. These stories will linger in your mind and get under your skin. They shimmer with life -- Christina Baker Kline [Wolitzer] shows us the ever-shifting alliances of family life and ways in which love can both change and endure. * New York Times * To read Hilma Wolitzer is to laugh in a special way and to allow yourself little intermissions of sheer satisfaction in which you lay the open book facedown on your heart and snuggle with the human race. * Gail Godwin * Wolitzer's vision of the world, for all its sorrow, is often hilarious and always compassionate. * New York Times Book Review * Wolitzer is a champ at the closely observed, droll novel of manners. * NPR *