The Startup Wife

A Novel

By: Tahmima Anam

Narrated by: Tanha Dil

Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR​

In this “wise and wickedly funny novel about love, creativity, and the limitations of the tech-verse” (Vogue) newlyweds Asha and Cyrus find themselves running one of the most popular social media platforms in the world.

Meet Asha Ray. Brilliant coder and possessor of a Pi tattoo, Asha is poised to make a scientific breakthrough when she is reunited with her high school crush, Cyrus Jones.

Before she knows it, Asha has abandoned her lab, exchanged vows with Cyrus, and gone to work at an exclusive tech incubator called Utopia to develop an app called WAI — “We are Infinite.”

WAI creates a sensation, with millions of users logging on every day. Will Cyrus and Asha’s marriage survive the pressures of sudden fame, or will she become overshadowed by the man everyone is calling the new messiah?

This “scathing — and hilarious — take on startup culture, marriage and workaholism” (Politico) explores whether or not technology — with all its limits and possibilities — can disrupt modern love.

©2021 Tahmima Anam. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Canongate Books Ltd. All rights reserved.

Great story, frustrating reader

Ms. Anam’s characters are very three dimensional and the protagonist, Asha, develops her voice (first person narrator) through the events of the story. Indeed, finding her voice in her relationship and owning her considerable expertise and insight in her work is an important theme of the book. The story and the key relationships, including minor characters, are compellingly drawn. However, I found the reader quite frustrating. She frequently (on virtually every page) emphasizes the wrong words in sentences and places pauses or skips them, to unfortunate and often hilarious effect (“a picture of Cyrus with his arms…out in a field”) and it made it hard for me to stick with this book to the end.

Young Adult.... at best

Predictable, uninteresting, and mediocre writing for an adult audience. Perhaps this is meant for high school students.

Good story but a hard listen

So many small pauses where (pause) they should not be. I don't know when (pause) the story is taking a (pause) turn, or (pause) the narrator is just reading (pause) normally. Makes it had to listen to. Also the monotone......

However, the story is really good and fun to listen to so it keeps me coming back.

Restarting the Startup Wife Immediately

This book has it all. Love Story. Friendships. Humor. Strong women. Academia. Faux industrial incubator spaces. I related to so much of the relationship dynamics and was introduced to the experience of 1st generation Bengali immigrants in a new way. I am a social scientist by training and I loved every detail of Wai. The author teases an idea for a tv show adaptation and I am HERE for it. I love discovering this book the day it came out but hate the wait for more.

Overall, I'm extremely glad I listened to the book

First of all, PLEASE READ THIS BOOK!! It gives clear examples of how most women tend to stifle themselves. As a woman myself, I resonated with Asha's emotional journey so hard. My only super tiny and not that important complaint is about the voice acting. To the voice actress, you beautiful beautiful soul, you have a lovely voice and did a great job, but sometimes it was hard to tell who was talking in the book. It was also pretty obvious where you went back and edited in parts, but overall it was still really good and I don't think anyone could have read Asha better than you.

Reading performance hurt the story

Oh how I wish I had listened to the sample! The choppy awkward reading performance interfered with my enjoyment of the book. It felt like the performer was unfamiliar with the story. I would definitely read another book by this author but will avoid any other reading by this performer.

READ this book!

Great story! VERY disappointing narration!! When I first began listening to The Startup Wife, I found the narrator’s voice (Tahna Dil) to be very annoying and seemingly unsuitable for this story. Unfortunately, it did not get any better! I kept thinking “this woman sounds very ‘Valley Girl’: breathy and hurried and shallow…not at all convincing for a story that takes place with a bright young woman in New York!” In the Prologue section where the author interviews this narrator, we find out that Ms. Dil is narrating from a studio in Tarzana, California- “Valley Girl” territory for sure! I loved this story but probably would have given it 5* if the author (or her publisher) had chosen a more suitable narrator. I recommend you to READ the book…don’t listen!

Terrible narrator

Such a shame that this author allowed this terrible narrator to read her book. It honestly feels like that is the very first time she is reading these words, such awkward phrasing and pauses. The book and story are pretty good, but the narrator is a disaster. Maybe they will re-record it with someone more professional.

first audiobook I've ever listened to

perfect brand of humor, perfect actress for the role, fingers crossed for a TV series

poor reading ruins good book

why does the reader halt every five words. the reading is so distracting, ruins the story.