The author was inspired to write the darkly funny new novel by living through her own early struggles
Credit: Cocoa Laney; Spiegel & Grau
NEED TO KNOW
- Becky Mandelbaum’s new novel Homewrecker explores heartbreak, family struggles, and self-discovery
- The story follows Piper, who moves in with her ex and his fiancee while grappling with guilt and a ghostly presence
- Early praise highlights the book’s sharp humor, emotional truth and relatable themes of vulnerability and resilience
If you loved Margo’s Got Money Troubles and Jennette McCurdy’s Half His Age, get ready for Homewrecker.
In what the publisher calls a “darkly funny, achingly wise new novel” from Becky Mandelbaum,author of the Indie Next pick The Bright Side Sanctuary for Animals, a woman named Piper finds herself broke and living with her depressed mom in her dead brother’s bedroom in Kansas. After she accepts her ex Aaron’s offer to move in with them, things start to take a turn.
“Never mind that Aaron ghosted her three years ago without explanation. Never mind that Victoria is gorgeous, sophisticated and everything Piper isn’t,” the book’s synopsis explains. “Never mind that their beautiful Victorian home is partly covered in bizarre murals painted by its former inhabitant — a woman whose restless spirit still hums within the walls.”
Credit: Cocoa Laney
When she arrives, Piper is “stunned by Aaron’s transformation from broke hipster artist to successful video game designer. And she’s unnerved by Victoria: gorgeous, sophisticated, driven — everything Piper feels she isn’t,” the synopsis teases. If that isn’t enough, Piper’s also “drowning in heartbreak, consumed by lust and haunted by the guilty secret she carries about her brother’s death.”
Piper hatches a scheme to reclaim what she’s lost, with the house’s ghostly inhabitant as her unlikely inhabitant. But of course, nothing goes to plan.
Credit: Spiegel & Grau
And for Mandelbaum, the book comes from a personal place that she hopes readers will find relatable.
“Writing Homewrecker was my way of processing my twenties, from its failed relationships and career challenges to my brother’s struggle with addiction,” says the author. “I’m excited for readers to discover Homewrecker and feel the same things I felt while writing it: heartache, longing, humor, wonder and hope.”
The book has already earned early praise from Pulitzer prize-winner Yiyun Li, who calls the book “razor-sharp, darkly humorous, yet finely tuned to emotional truth.”
Laura Moriarty, author of Sunlight Finds You, says the author “understands that people are rarely at their most admirable when they’re at their most vulnerable, and with that truth, she created a profoundly moving story that’s also very funny. Inventive and fearless, Homewrecker defies expectations at every turn.”
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Homewrecker goes on sale on June 1, 2027 and is available for preorder now, wherever books are sold.
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