Barbara Isn’t Dying

A Novel

by Alina Bronsky

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Pub Date May 09 2023 | Archive Date May 09 2023

Europa Editions

General Fiction (Adult) | Literary Fiction

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Description

A WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

A bittersweet and hilarious novel about a marriage whose decades-old routine is suddenly upended.

Walter Schmidt has lived his whole life within the narrow, “comfortable” confines of traditional gender roles: he has made it to retirement without learning how to fry an egg or use a vacuum cleaner. After all, he could always count on his wife, Barbara. But when one morning she can’t get up from bed anymore, everything changes.

With biting humor and great warmth, Alina Bronsky writes about how Walter, nearing the end of his life, is suddenly forced to reinvent himself as a caregiver and house-husband, and become the caring partner he never was in all his years with Barbara.

Little by little, Walter’s rough facade begins to crumble—and with it his old certainties about his life and family.

A WASHINGTON POST BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

A bittersweet and hilarious novel about a marriage whose decades-old routine is suddenly upended.

Walter Schmidt has lived his whole life within the narrow...

A Note From the Publisher

TARGET CONSUMER

-Authors previous titles reviewed in L.A. Times, S.F. Chronicle, Financial Times, Vogue, Boston Globe, New Yorker, and others
-Rights sold to several countries
-Bronsky excels at portraying elderly characters and shifting family dynamics during old age
-Author’s previous titles—especially Hottest Dishes..., and Broken Glass Park—have been indie store favorites and regional bestsellers
-The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine is a “Europa essential”

KEY SELLING POINTS

-Readers of general fiction, literary fiction, upmarket women’s fiction, family drama, literature in translation, German fiction, Russian fiction,
-Readers of Helen DeWitt’s Some Trick and Lightning Rods, the fiction of Eve Babitz, Sofi Oksanen, Olga Tokarcuk, Ottessa Moshfegh, Elif Batuman, Ludmilla Petrushekskaya, and Shirley Jackson

TARGET CONSUMER

-Authors previous titles reviewed in L.A. Times, S.F. Chronicle, Financial Times, Vogue, Boston Globe, New Yorker, and others
-Rights sold to several countries
-Bronsky excels at...

Advance Praise

Praise for Barbara Isn’t Dying

“Cheerful, clever, and full of compassion.”—WDR 3 Mosaic

“Brimming with dark wit and great warmth.”—Sound & Media

“Bronsly’s delicate detachment, her sense of comedy, her feeling for the weird and absurd, make Barbara Isn’t Dying a delight.”—WDR 5

“The humor is biting, the characters idiosyncratic, the laughter spontaneous—readers will love this new book by Bronsky both for its unsympathetic antihero and for how connected they ultimately feel to him.”—emotion

Praise for Alina Bronsky

“Bronsky has a Dickensian flair for writing about miserable children—or, rather, the miseries of childhood.”—Vulture

“Alina Bronsky brilliantly keeps the mood funny and uplifting throughout with quirky characters and irreverent humor. My Grandmother’s Braid celebrates the power of forgiveness and the strength of the human spirit.”—Apple Books, Book of the Month

“[Alina Bronsky] is at her best when evoking family dysfunction and powerful, mean old women, and both aspects are promised here [ . . . ] Sounds like a riot, as ever.”—Lit Hub, Most Anticipated Books of 2021

“My Grandmother’s Braid is written in a style that seems at turns facetious and tragic; one finds themselves snorting with laughter during the most inappropriate moments [ . . . ] This book is funny, maddening, and surprisingly sentimental and compassionate. It seems incredible to flip through the one hundred and fifty or so pages that comprise this novel and realize how much there is still to talk about.”—Barbara Halla, Asymptote

“Bronsky’s comic take on grandmother makes way for empathy [ . . . ] Bronsky depicts challenges the ragtag band of characters is up against through gritty city scenes and no-bones-about-it biases. The world of this novel is small, but densely packed with humorous pathos.”—Mari’s Book Reviews

Praise for Barbara Isn’t Dying

“Cheerful, clever, and full of compassion.”—WDR 3 Mosaic

“Brimming with dark wit and great warmth.”—Sound & Media

“Bronsly’s delicate detachment, her sense of comedy, her...