Description
Ten days after calling off her wedding, CJ Hauser went on an expedition to study the whooping crane.
After a week wading through the gulf, she realised she had almost signed up to live somebody else’s life.
In this intimate, frank and funny memoir in essays, CJ Hauser lets go of ‘how life was supposed to be’ and goes looking for more honest ways of living.
She kisses internet strangers, officiates a wedding, visits a fertility clinic.
She reads Rebecca in the house her new boyfriend shared with his ex-wife and rewinds Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story to learn how not to lose yourself in a relationship.
She writes about friends and lovers, ghosts and robots, grief and heartbreak, blood family and chosen family, and asks what more expansive definitions of love might offer us all.
‘Outstanding…an elegant masterpiece…wry but also warm and generous’ – Roxane Gay
‘Funny, exciting, vulnerable – truly visionary’ – Alexander Chee
‘What a fantastic, original, funny and touching voice! C J Hauser is a wondrous writer. This book will give so much happiness’ – Cressida Connolly
‘Brilliant and beautiful…an absolute must-read’ – Frances Cha
‘Compassionate and funny and brave. CJ is a master story weaver. I was left wanting more, in the best way possible’ – Charlie Gilmour
‘A thrillingly original deconstruction of desire and its many configurations’ – Publishers Weekly
‘Bold and brilliant and psychologically exquisite, CJ Hauser is a deeply gifted and generous writer. The Crane Wife is enthralling’ – Charlotte Fox Weber
‘Intimate, witty and beautifully crafted’ – Elle
