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Start giftingThe Wedding People
A Novel
Narrator
Helen Laser
This audiobook uses AI narration.
We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
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Length
11 hours 37 minutes
Language
English
Bookseller recommendation
“I just finished this audiobook and want to start it all over again! Despite the heavy topics (depression, suicidal ideation, infertility), the raw honesty and empathy between the characters adds a surprising light to the dark humor. Bold, engaging, and memorable - this one easily moves up the list of best books I’ve read this year!”
— Chelsea • Bromley's Books
Bookseller recommendation
“Phoebe wants to kill herself. Phoebe goes to a Gilded Age Nantucket hotel to do it. One last lobster and champagne kind of night before she offs herself. Fortunately, her plan gets derailed as she becomes entangled in a wedding party, specifically with a needy yet loveable bridezilla. Phoebe is a curious depressive who realizes it's not too late to start over and careen headfirst into a new life filled with people, both fallible and fascinating. ”
— Lissa • Book Club Bar
Bookseller recommendation
“A unforgettable and moving read. We bear witness to the main character’s deep pain as she struggles with pregnancy loss, depression, loneliness, and divorce. She checks in to a fancy Newport hotel to kill herself. But instead, she crosses paths with the attendants of a week-long wedding celebration, and everyone’s lives are changed. What comes next is a story of connection. A celebration of the ways that we can reach out to other people, the ways that we can drop the artifice, be ourselves, and communicate honestly and meaningfully. Espach writes with raunchy humor at times, and I laughed out loud more than once. But mostly she writes with incredible insight and empathy about the human journey, a journey that will inevitably contain grief and loss but can also be full of joy and love. This book will be one of my top books of the year. Despite its tough content, I believe it is a celebration of human resilience and a reminder that the choice to love is always one we can make. ”
— Colleen • Read Between the Lynes
Bookseller recommendation
“Loved this story! Phoebe has come to a luxury hotel, with the intention of killing herself, following the breakup of her marriage and the death of her cat. Her plans are interruped with the arrival of Lila the bride and her entire wedding party, gathered for a weeklong celebration. Before she realized what has happened, Phoebe is entrenched with the group. A great cast of characters, wonderful dialogue, bittersweet and laugh out loud funny. Could not put down!”
— Nona • CoffeeTree Books
Bookseller recommendation
“A moving story about two women who find themselves entwined at a wedding in Newport, Rhode Island. Phoebe has come to Newport to end her life, while Lila is there to have the most perfect wedding. Over the course of the week, both discover what true friendship and love looks like. I know I will thinking about this book for a long time. ”
— Claire • River & Hill Books
Bookseller recommendation
“Things I did not anticipate saying this year #435: 'This book that begins with a woman set on committing suicide at a seaside hotel in Newport was a really fun read!' Of course, that sentence massively oversimplifies Alison Espach’s newest novel; The Wedding People is a book that begins with our narrator, Phoebe, traveling to her pre-booked super fancy ocean-view deathbed, but that is only the beginning. It is her happenstance meetup in the elevator with The Bride (who was under the impression she had booked the entire hotel) that begins an unlikely friendship based on the radical honesty of people who feel they’ve reached the finish line. Espach navigates the difficult topics of suicide ideation, depression, infertility, economic uncertainty, and infidelity with incredible empathy, managing to impart a dark comedy without ever mocking mental health or the incredible struggles faced by millions every day. As a lifelong Rhode Islander who works in Newport, it was such a treat to see our city written well: our city by the sea really gets to shine through the eyes of Phoebe as she visits for the first and (she assumes) last time. Each character is richly and realistically drawn, in their beauty and idiosyncrasy; people who have come together, willing or not, to celebrate moving forward in one way or another. ”
— Amy • Charter Books
Bookseller recommendation
“I absolutely love this book, it was funny, touching, and relatable. I would never have guessed that a book that started with a suicidal woman would end up being this heartwarming. I understood Phoebe’s pain, and frustrations with the world. I even understand why Lyia is the way she is. This book is about friendship and discovering people in your life at the most unsuspecting time. I’d like to think that Phoebe gets everything she has longed for. Juice I love you. Absolutely incredible.”
— Sarah • Parthenon Books
Bookseller recommendation
“The Wedding People hits the absolute sweet spot of compulsively fun to read while asking serious questions about life, love, and a lavish destination wedding. Alison Espach’s mix of light and dark makes for deeply authentic characters.”
— Nina Barrett • Bookends & Beginnings
Bookseller recommendation
“Alison Espach's newest novel hits pretty hard pretty fast, with suicidal ideation attempted suicide (but make it "let's not take ourselves too seriously.") I wasn't sure how to take this cavalier attitude toward such a heavy topic but I'm happy I stuck with it. At first glance, the titular "Wedding People" appear self-absorbed and typical of a certain sect of entitled Northeasterners (i.e., the target market for preppy coastal shops like Brooks Brothers and IZOD). Once exposed to main character Phoebe Stone's jarringly laissez faire energy, however, "The Wedding People" soon find that life will never be quite the same. I feel the same. ”
— Mary G-B • River Bend Bookshop
Bookseller recommendation
“This was a fun family drama that had very likable characters. I didn’t want to stop listening! Funny too! ”
— Jana • Inscribe Books
Bookseller recommendation
“I love a book that defies expectations from the start. Espach has a distinct ability to paint every character with a depth that is both darkly funny and full of empathy. Or, perhaps Phoebe has this unique insight. Either way, it makes for a compelling tale of two women trying to find and make sense of themselves at the most unlikely of places, a destination wedding. ”
— Rebecca George • Volumes Bookcafe
"As narrator, the terrific Laser, an actress and puppeteer, only enhances the swoon-worthy quirks and romance."—Vulture
A Today Show #ReadwithJenna Book Club Pick
A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.
It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years—she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan—which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.
In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined—and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.
A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt & Company.
Alison Espach is the author of the novels The Adults, a New York Times Editors' Choice and a Barnes & Noble Discover pick, and Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance, which was named a best book of 2022 by the Chicago Tribune and NPR. Her short stories and essays have appeared in McSweeney’s, Vogue, Outside, Joyland, and other places. She is a professor of creative writing at Providence College in Rhode Island.
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Reviews
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
The #1 Indie Next Pick for August 2024
One of The Washington Post’s 10 Noteworthy Books for July and August
Named a Best Book of Summer 2024 by People Magazine, Bustle, Star Tribune, Goodreads, and LitHub
“The Wedding People is the perfect book to wrap up your summer reading. . . . heartwarming [and] hilarious.”
—Jenna Bush Hager, The Today Show's #ReadwithJenna
“A collision of diametrically opposed life events and general drama, the likes of which we haven’t seen since Maggie Shipstead’s Seating Arrangements. . . . Espach has an eye for the full gamut of emotions that go hand in hand with lifelong commitment, from humor to self-involvement to pathos.”
—Elisabeth Egan, The New York Times Book Review
“Espach’s wit and warmth deliver a gratifying story about how people who have given up might find a reason to start caring again.”
—Becky Meloan, The Washington Post
“A feel-good testament to the life-altering magic of chance meetings.”
—People
“Full of witty dialogue and lovably imperfect characters you’ll root for till the end.”
—Real Simple
“Filled with hilarious scenes and brilliant banter.”
—Marion Winik, Newsday
“By deftly invoking many popular romantic comedy tropes, Espach fills this novel with champagne-tinged fizz, while never losing sight of the more sober emotional truths that kicked off her narrative.”
—Bustle
“This engaging rom-com is an entertaining reminder that change isn’t always negative – and often is necessary.”
—Connie Ogle and Carole E. Barrowman, Star Tribune
“Think: Eleanor Oliphant and Meredith, Alone vibes. As of this writing, The Wedding People is my favorite book of 2024.”
—Isabelle Eyman, Camille Styles
“Witty dialogue is just a bonus in this engrossing read centering on complex women making life-changing decisions. Recommend to readers who enjoy Sally Rooney, Curtis Sittenfeld, or Elizabeth Berg.”
—Library Journal (starred review)
“The Wedding People is so much more than a funny story (though it is very funny). Espach has penned a keenly observed novel about depression, love, the ways women make themselves small, and how one woman got over it. Fully realized and completely memorable.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“Sparkling . . . Readers are in for a treat.”
—Publishers Weekly
“The Wedding People is a wickedly funny and deeply satisfying novel about a woman with nothing to lose, armed with a green dress, some chocolate wine, and a coconut pillow, cut loose to cause delightful mayhem. It’s a story of lovers who turn into strangers, strangers who turn into friends, and the weird and wonderful connections that make us feel truly alive. I loved it.”
—Jenny Jackson, New York Times bestselling author of Pineapple Street
“The Wedding People is my very favorite kind of novel—hilarious and witty with enormous heart and characters I fell in love with. I was delighted to be at this wedding, in the middle of the drama and gossip, watching the entanglements of friendships old and new. I haven’t stopped talking about this book since I finished it, and I won’t stop until I’ve made everyone I know read it . . . so read it! Now! You can thank me later.”
—Jennifer Close, bestselling author of Marrying the Ketchups
“Alison Espach! How does she do it? I mean, really—how? The Wedding People is so utterly, ringingly true it feels less like fiction than like a field guide to personhood. It's so funny and romantic that I sometimes laughed out loud and sometimes got actual goosebumps. I tore through it like I didn't have a disordered deficit of attention. It's a perfect novel. I loved it.”
—Catherine Newman, author of Sandwich