Carolyn Mackler's razor-sharp adult fiction debut imagines one answer to a persistent question: What if women got paid for all the "mental load" tasks that wives usually do for free?
After she finds out her husband is cheating (again), Manhattan tech product manager (and mom of twins) Lauren Zuckerman files for divorce. While toasting her new life, she and her two best friends, Madeline and Sophie, hit on an idea: a "wife app" that would pay women to wrangle the minutiae of other people's lives. Though the other two initially see it as a joke, Lauren takes the idea and runs with it, resulting in a wild ride that will reshape how they all think about work and relationships.
Mackler (The Universe Is Expanding and So Am I) shifts among her three protagonists' voices, chronicling their struggles with career and parenting, as well as their larger existential (and romantic) worries. As the women work out the kinks of the app--accepting assignments, establishing firm boundaries with clients, hiring other "wives" and juggling their new workloads--Mackler examines the cultural norm of women shouldering the mental (and logistical, and often emotional) burdens for their families. Her characters grapple (sometimes hilariously) with the growing pains of a start-up and its sudden success, but still have to manage their own mental loads. Throughout the book, their friendship--not perfect, but honest and warm--helps ground all three women.
Smart, wincingly funny, and occasionally sexy, Mackler's novel is a 21st-century ode to female empowerment and women pursuing what they really want--while still juggling childcare, camp forms, and relationships like the pros they are. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams