Fleishman Is in Trouble

A Novel

By: Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Narrated by: Allyson Ryan

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST • “A masterpiece” (NPR) about marriage, divorce, and the bewildering dynamics of ambition

Now an FX limited series on Hulu, starring Claire Danes, Jesse Eisenberg, Lizzy Caplan, and Adam Brody

ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Entertainment Weekly, The New York Public Library
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, Time, The Washington Post, USA Today Vanity Fair, Vogue, NPR, Chicago Tribune, GQ, Vox, Refinery29, Elle, The Guardian, Real Simple, Financial Times, Parade, Good Housekeeping, New Statesman, Marie Claire, Town & Country, Evening Standard, Thrillist, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, BookPage, BookRiot, Shelf Awareness

Toby Fleishman thought he knew what to expect when he and his wife of almost fifteen years separated: weekends and every other holiday with the kids, some residual bitterness, the occasional moment of tension in their co-parenting negotiations. He could not have predicted that one day, in the middle of his summer of sexual emancipation, Rachel would just drop their two children off at his place and simply not return. He had been working so hard to find equilibrium in his single life. The winds of his optimism, long dormant, had finally begun to pick up. Now this.

As Toby tries to figure out where Rachel went, all while juggling his patients at the hospital, his never-ending parental duties, and his new app-assisted sexual popularity, his tidy narrative of the spurned husband with the too-ambitious wife is his sole consolation. But if Toby ever wants to truly understand what happened to Rachel and what happened to his marriage, he is going to have to consider that he might not have seen things all that clearly in the first place.

A searing, utterly unvarnished debut, Fleishman Is in Trouble is an insightful, unsettling, often hilarious exploration of a culture trying to navigate the fault lines of an institution that has proven to be worthy of our great wariness and our great hope.

Alma’s Best Jewish Novel of the Year • Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize for Best First Book

©2019 Taffy Brodesser-Akner (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“This glorious debut has the humor of Maria Semple, the heart of Meg Wolitzer, the lustiness of Philip Roth, and a voice that is pure. It’s wild and wonderful and goes in so many directions, each with profundity—my favorite thing that novels can do. How does one's favorite journalist become one's new favorite novelist? With this book.”—Emma Straub

“When his ex drops the kids off and doesn’t come back, a father of two revisits the choices that led to this moment. He searches for answers, hilariously and heartbreakingly avoiding the darkest questions. Brodesser-Akner’s debut is a referendum on marriage, friendship, and how we live (and love) right now.”—People

“Whip-smart, gleefully scatological . . . [Brodesser-Akner] aims a perfect gimlet eye at the city’s relentless self-regard. . . . But her best trick may be the novel’s narrator: An elusive presence identified at first only as an old friend of Toby’s from their study-abroad days, she turns out to be both the book’s Trojan horse and—in a brilliant third-act pivot—its greatest gift, transforming a fizzy comedy of manners into something genuinely, unexpectedly profound.”—Entertainment Weekly

It makes you think

As someone who identifies with the narrator of the story (an early 40s mom who feel like she’s still getting her shit together) this story was such a gritty, real, you’re not a weirdo kind of book. I think this book is exactly what I needed to read. And for people who didn’t think it was great, maybe it wasn’t what they needed to read.

Young adults guide into wisdom

Not being a young adult myself, I was a little skeptical for the first quarter of the book or so, but it was witty and fun. I was glad to have stuck with it, bcs the story became truthful in ways I understand better, painful at times, and even the lecturing ending is good.

A novel of contemporary upper class New York

A well written entertaining well narrated novel which seems to be about a coming of age that occurs at a certain point in adulthood & more specifically about a jerk with a hugely inflated idea of himself & how he survives a few weeks of objectively mild uncertainty in a state of panic & fury at his ex who - well - he’s an enormous entitled jerk. Don’t want to give spoilers. You may see it differently.

What a fresh, inspiring book!

This book was witty and truthful for everyone who feels the crush of midlife! A mirror is hard to look at sometimes!

Interesting Perspective—

Overall a good listen, but the narrator was not a great choice. She has a clear pleasant voice, but limited range; seemed like every sentence went up at the end like a question.

Different

This book was not amazing but pretty decent. The choice to have the narrator be an outside supporting character was kind of interesting. No huge revelations from this book but it was a pretty easy listen and the narration is good.

Brilliantly read

Allyson Ryan does an amazing job bringing this quirky, funny and touching book to life! Brava!

Go in open minded, and enjoy

As someone who teaches sociology, I think a key element to enjoying this story is non-judgement, and understanding of circumstances we can’t control. I found it absorbing, I interesting, and far from perfect, much as the characters themselves. I think those that have so much vitriol for it fear seeing themselves in the characters.

a generation trying to understand itself

I liked the story about 4 people each entering middle age confused about their place in the world.

Will make you think!

Funny and scary and depressing but most of all true. Modern life and its incessant pace.