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Sign up todayThe Divorce Papers
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Learn moreWitty and wonderful, sparkling and sophisticated, this debut romantic comedy brilliantly tells the story of one very messy, very high-profile divorce, and the endearingly cynical young lawyer dragooned into handling it.
Twenty-nine-year-old Sophie Diehl is happy toiling away as a criminal law associate at an old line New England firm where she very much appreciates that most of her clients are behind bars. Everyone at Traynor, Hand knows she abhors face-to-face contact, but one weekend, with all the big partners away, Sophie must handle the intake interview for the daughter of the firm’s most important client. After eighteen years of marriage, Mayflower descendant Mia Meiklejohn Durkheim has just been served divorce papers in a humiliating scene at the popular local restaurant, Golightly’s. She is locked and loaded to fight her eminent and ambitious husband, Dr. Daniel Durkheim, Chief of the Department of Pediatric Oncology, for custody of their ten-year-old daughter Jane—and she also burns to take him down a peg. Sophie warns Mia that she’s never handled a divorce case before, but Mia can’t be put off. As she so disarmingly puts it: It’s her first divorce, too.
Debut novelist Susan Rieger doesn’t leave a word out of place in this hilarious and expertly crafted debut that shines with the power and pleasure of storytelling. Told through personal correspondence, office memos, emails, articles, and legal papers, this playful reinvention of the epistolary form races along with humor and heartache, exploring the complicated family dynamic that results when marriage fails. For Sophie, the whole affair sparks a hard look at her own relationships—not only with her parents, but with colleagues, friends, lovers, and most importantly, herself. Much like Where’d You Go, Bernadette, The Divorce Papers will have you laughing aloud and thanking the literature gods for this incredible, fresh new voice in fiction.
Read by Rebecca Lowman, Käthe Mazur, Arthur Morey, and Emily Rankin with selections read by Susan Denaker, Mark Bramhall, Fred Sanders, Mark Deakins, Kim Mai Guest, Marc Cashman, and Kimberly Farr
SUSAN RIEGER is a graduate of Columbia Law School. She has worked as a residential college dean at Yale and an associate provost at Columbia. She has taught law to undergraduates at both schools and written frequently about the law for newspapers and magazines. She lives in New York City with her husband. The Divorce Papers is her first novel.
Reviews
“Ingenious setup and voyeuristic pleasures . . . In her clever modern twist on the epistolary form, Rieger excavates the humor and humanity from a most bitter uncoupling.”—Emily Giffin, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)“Fresh and lively . . . smart and wonderfully entertaining . . . . The power and canniness of this bittersweet work of epistolary fiction pulls you along… This portrait of a divorce makes for serious, yet charming, entertainment. . . . A dramatic intertwining of the law and human feelings.”—NPR
“A witty first novel . . . providing all the voyeuristic pleasure of snooping through someone else’s inbox.”—People
“Brims with brio and wit.”—Entertainment Weekly
“This comedy of manners . . . unfolds through e-mails, legal briefs, handwritten notes, and interoffice memos. . . . The texts offer a provocative glimpse of how intimately our documents reveal us.”—The New Yorker
“[Rieger] uses office politics and legal clashes to brilliant and scathingly funny effect. Think The Good Wife but funnier and, in the end, more poignant.”—The Christian Science Monitor
“Whip smart . . . The characters are hilarious and brilliant.”—Lucky
“Smart, sophisticated, and incredibly fun, The Divorce Papers brilliantly combines the pleasures of snooping with the delights of great storytelling. I raced through these charming pages and enjoyed every one.”—Karen Thompson Walker, author of The Age of Miracles
“Terrific fun. I relished every last letter, memo, e-mail, and legal brief in this sneakily clever, insidery peek into the world of privileged families and the lawyers who serve them.”—Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians
“Rieger writes with such facility and humor in so many voices. . . . An excellent yarn about the nature of love, insecurity and commitment.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Exceedingly entertaining.”—Real Simple
“Clever and funny . . . Rieger’s tone, textured structure, and lively voice make this debut a winner.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A brutally comic chronicle of high-end divorce . . . Extremely clever.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Rieger brilliantly blends the serious and the comic. . . . If you like your fiction smart and witty, The Divorce Papers is a winner.”—Shelf Awareness (starred review) Expand reviews
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