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The Wife App

A Novel

by Carolyn Mackler

Length 10 hours 8 minutes

Language English

Narrators Jennifer Jill Araya, Joy Osmanski & Allyson Ryan

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Bookseller recommendation

“Clever and the right amount of cheeky, The Wife App takes the mental load of marriage to the gig economy. An insightful look at relationships of all sorts, this novel asks us what we’re willing to do for others, even if we aren’t paid. ”
— Rachel • BookPeople

Bookseller recommendation

“A roller coaster of a story! Three very different women's lives coalesce around the shared experience of bearing an unfair amount of their families' mental load and wanting to do something about it. The dynamic female characters doing the vulnerable work of learning and growing through setbacks and through new opportunities left me feeling inspired. I binged the audiobook and yet didn't want it to end! The narrators brought the characters to life. The Wife App evokes grief, anger, laughter, lust, and love in an engaging mix. ”
— Grace • The Novel Neighbor

Bookseller recommendation

“The Wife App is the story of three women who are all at very different places in their lives and are all bogged down with various levels of wife duties and all of the unpaid labour that goes into being a wife and a mother. When these three friends jokingly decide to make an app to combat the problem, they aren't prepared for how it is received. This is poignant, funny and show-cases what it means to parent today, and how badly we need support and assistance to make it work. Further it shows how friendships change and better over time. ”
— Lindsey • Bookish

Summary
About the author

Because every wife deserves a happy ending.

Three best friends decide they’re finally done with their ex-husbands taking their work as wives and moms for granted. They’re ready to monetize the mental load, stick it to their exes, and have a wild ride in the process in this novel that is “fresh, funny, empowering, and totally satisfying” (Judy Blume).

Lauren, mother of twins, wakes up one morning to her Wife Alarm Bells sounding. She sleuths on her husband’s phone and stumbles on a dirty secret that explodes her marriage. Madeline has it all—a penthouse apartment, a perfect daughter, and no-strings-attached romps with handsome men. But when she learns she might lose her child to her ex in England, it stirs up a decades-old personal tragedy. Sophie, with too much FOMO and never enough money, obsesses over her ex-husband’s Family 2.0—all while keeping her true desires hidden, even from herself.

It starts as a joke during a tipsy night out, as Lauren, Madeline, and Sophie rail against everything wives do for free. Let’s build an app that monetizes the mental load. And maybe revenge on our exes in the process. Soon, the Wife App is born, and before long, it’s the fastest growing start-up in New York City. But then life intervenes. Love intervenes. Ex-husbands intervene. And the consequences are bigger than anything Lauren, Madeline, or Sophie could have expected. Carolyn Mackler marks her debut into adult fiction with a rollercoaster ride of revenge and redemption that is at once a send-up of modern marriage and a celebration of female friendship and love in all forms.

Fiction Humor

Carolyn Mackler is the acclaimed author of the YA novels The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things (A Michael L. Printz Honor Book); The Universe Is Expanding and So Am I; Infinite in Between; and Love and Other Four-Letter Words; and the middle grade novel, Best Friend Next Door. Carolyn’s award-winning books have appeared on bestseller lists and been translated into more than twenty-five languages. Carolyn lives in New York City with her husband and two sons. The Wife App is her first adult novel.