Named a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian, Time, Chicago Tribune, Elle, Real Simple, and Glamour
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.Alison Espach
Alison Espach is an American novelist and educator known for her emotionally insightful fiction, sharp humor, and nuanced explorations of relationships, grief, identity, and the unexpected ways people find connection. Her writing blends wit with vulnerability, creating characters who navigate complicated family dynamics, personal disappointments, and major life transitions. Through her distinctive storytelling style, Espach examines the tension between the lives people imagine for themselves and the realities they must learn to embrace.
Espach is the author of *The Adults*, *Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance*, and *The Wedding People*. Her bestselling novel *The Wedding People*, a Read with Jenna book club selection, follows Phoebe Stone, a woman who arrives alone at a luxurious Rhode Island hotel and unexpectedly becomes entangled in an elaborate wedding celebration. Combining dark humor, emotional honesty, and unlikely friendships, the novel explores loneliness, marriage, heartbreak, reinvention, and the surprising connections that can emerge during life's most difficult moments. Across her novels, Espach is recognized for balancing poignant themes with clever dialogue and memorable characters.
For readers who enjoy literary fiction that makes them laugh while quietly breaking their hearts, Espach offers stories filled with emotional depth, complicated relationships, and unexpected moments of hope. Her books are especially suited
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