Soulmates: A Novel

by Jessica Grose Narrated by Carly Robins, Zach Villa, Dan Woren, Elizabeth Wiley, Teri Schnaubelt

Overview

""For anyone who has ever suspected something sinister lurking behind the craze of new-age spirituality, Jessica Grose has crafted just the tale for you. With the delicious bite of satire and the page-turning satisfaction of a thriller, Soulmates is a deeply compelling, funny and sharply observed look at just how far we will go to achieve inner peace.""-Lena Dunham

A clever, timely novel about a marriage, and infidelity, the meaning of true spirituality, perception and reality from the author of Sad Desk Salad, in which a scorned ex-wife tries to puzzle out the pieces of her husband's mysterious death at a yoga retreat and their life together.

It's been two years since the divorce, and Dana has moved on. She's killing it at her law firm, she's never looked better, thanks to all those healthy meals she cooks, and she's thrown away Ethan's ratty old plaid recliner. She hardly thinks about her husband-ex-husband-anymore, or about how the man she'd known since college ran away to the Southwest with a yoga instructor, spouting spiritual claptrap that Dana still can't comprehend.

But when she sees Ethan's picture splashed across the front page of the New York Post-""Nama-Slay: Yoga Couple Found Dead in New Mexico Cave""-Dana discovers she hasn't fully let go of Ethan or the past. The article implies that it was a murder-suicide, and Ethan's to blame. How could the man she once loved so deeply be a killer? Restless to find answers that might help her finally to let go, Dana begins to dig into the mystery surrounding Ethan's death. Sifting through the clues of his life, Dana finds herself back in the last years of their marriage . . . and discovers that their relationship-like Ethan's death-wasn't what it appeared to be.

A novel of marriage, meditation, and all the spaces in between, Soulmates is a page-turning mystery, a delicious satire of our feel-good spiritual culture, and a nuanced look at contemporary relationships by one of the sharpest writers working today.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

07/25/2016
The disappointing second novel by the author of Sad Desk Salad starts off as a sharp, well-populated satire and then devolves into a horror tale bogged down with unlikely coincidences. Spunky attorney Dana is finally on the brink of recovering from her husband, Ethan, leaving her for fellow yoga enthusiast Amaya five years before. She’s horrified to see Ethan and Amaya’s pictures on the front of the New York Post under the headline “Nama-Slay: Yoga Couple Found Dead in New Mexico Cave.” At the request of a sheriff on the scene, she heads down to the Zuni Retreat where they taught in hopes of discovering what really happened and uncovering the secrets of the retreat’s leader, the darkly mysterious Lama Yoni. Her encounters there give Grose the opportunity for some pointed if good-natured observations on aging hippies and “lululemonites.” But once Dana discovers a perhaps too conveniently placed booklet by Ethan about his initiation into the secret levels of Lama Yoni’s cult, the tone of the novel shifts precipitously from lighthearted fun to murky drama, and the plot twists in ways that wouldn’t be out of place in a soap opera. Even more wrenching is the personality transplant that Dana undergoes in service of the plot. (Sept.)

From the Publisher

A zany whodunit that is compelling, funny, painful and wry, delivered by an author with her finger on the pulse of the current cultural zeitgeist.” — Globe and Mail (Toronto)

“A whip-smart skewering of modern mysticism told with the urgency of a thriller. You’ll laugh, you’ll roll your eyes knowingly, and you’ll race to the end to find out whodunit.” — Jessica Knoll, New York Times bestselling author of The Luckiest Girl Alive

“I devoured this fast-paced, evocative novel. Jessica Grose has a keen eye for detail, a killer sense of humor, and a gift for building suspense. She had me guessing until the final page.” — J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of Maine and The Engagements

“Funny, engaging, and, even given the violent deaths at the center of the story, ultimately lighthearted.” — vogue.com

“Funny, compelling, delicious and satisfying.” — Lena Dunham

“Soulmates zigzags in a most effective way, lampooning the cult(ure) of spiritual growth as it makes you wonder if you might benefit from a few weeks with a guru. Grose has so much to say about breaking up, being alone, deciding what it means to be an adult.” — Caroline Kepnes, author of You and Hidden Bodies

Caroline Kepnes

Soulmates zigzags in a most effective way, lampooning the cult(ure) of spiritual growth as it makes you wonder if you might benefit from a few weeks with a guru. Grose has so much to say about breaking up, being alone, deciding what it means to be an adult.

Globe and Mail (Toronto)

A zany whodunit that is compelling, funny, painful and wry, delivered by an author with her finger on the pulse of the current cultural zeitgeist.

Jessica Knoll

A whip-smart skewering of modern mysticism told with the urgency of a thriller. You’ll laugh, you’ll roll your eyes knowingly, and you’ll race to the end to find out whodunit.

vogue.com

Funny, engaging, and, even given the violent deaths at the center of the story, ultimately lighthearted.

Lena Dunham

Funny, compelling, delicious and satisfying.

J. Courtney Sullivan

I devoured this fast-paced, evocative novel. Jessica Grose has a keen eye for detail, a killer sense of humor, and a gift for building suspense. She had me guessing until the final page.

Library Journal

04/15/2016
In this new novel from Grose, editor in chief of Lena Dunham's e-newsletter, Lenny, Dana is shocked by the headline "Nama-Slay: Yoga Couple Found Dead in New Mexico Cave." The male victim was her former husband, Ethan. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

Kirkus Reviews

2016-06-30
Editor and blogger Grose’s (Sad Desk Salad, 2012) second novel skewers yoga and guru culture, taking readers into the mysterious happenings at a secretive New Mexico cult.When New York lawyer Dana Morrison sees her husband Ethan’s face on the cover of the New York Post, she hasn’t seen him in five years. It takes a moment for the headline to register: “Nama-Slay: Yoga Couple Found Dead in New Mexico Cave.” Needless to say, she’s not the other half of the yoga couple, though she’s technically still Ethan’s wife. This situation seems rife with dramatic potential, but the novel ultimately doesn’t make much of it. Dana’s sense of loyalty sends her straight to the place where Ethan died, determined to clear his name after an investigator raises the possibility that the deaths were a murder-suicide. Once she’s there, Ethan’s voice becomes part of the story thanks to a book he wrote explaining the failure of their marriage. His words alternate with Dana’s present-moment reactions to what he’s written. Late in the novel, one character says “Woo! That felt good. It can be good to retell your story. In the act of retelling, our bitterness becomes smaller and smaller, until it is the size of a flea, and we can flick it away.” Unfortunately, that kind of retelling and explaining doesn’t make for great fiction. Throughout, the prose lacks the imagery and action that bring stories and characters to life. Instead, it reads like an interminable phone call with a friend rehashing her breakup, which doesn’t leave readers pulling for the dead, disillusioned husband or the abandoned wife. This book leaves readers wanting more than what they get—a dull he said, she said recap of a failed marriage, with a few satirical laughs along the way.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170038275
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	09/27/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

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