A memoir in essays that expands on the viral sensation The Crane Wife with a frank and funny look at love, intimacy, and self in the twenty-first century. From friends and lovers to blood family and chosen family, this elegant masterpiece (Roxane Gay,New York Timesbestsellingauthor of Hunger) asks what more expansivedefinitions of love might offer us all.

ABEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: TIME, THE GUARDIAN, GARDEN & GUN

“Hauser builds their life’s inventory out of deconstructed personal narratives, resulting in a reading experience that’s rich like a complicated dessertnot for wolfing down but for savoring in small bites.” The New York Times

Clever, heartfelt, and wrenching.
Time

Brilliant.
Oprah Daily

Ten days after calling off their wedding, CJ Hauser went on an expedition to Texas to study the whooping crane. After a week wading through the gulf, they realized they’d almost signed up to live someone else’s life.

What if you released yourself from traditional narratives of happiness? What if you looked forways to leave room for the unexpected? In Hausers case, this meant dissecting pop culture touchstone, from The Philadelphia Story to The X Files, to learn how not to lose yourself in a relationship. They attended a robot convention, contemplated grief at John Belushis gravesite, and officiated a wedding. Most importantly, they mapped the difference between the stories were asked to hold versus those we choose to carry.

Told with the late-night barstool directness of your wisest, most bighearted friend,The Crane Wife is a book for everyone whose path doesn’t look the way they thought it would; for everyone learning to find joy in the not-knowing and to build a new sort of life story, a new sort of family, a new sort of home to live in.