From the bestselling author of The Restaurant Critic’s Wife comes a surprising and heartwarming novel about the making—and unmaking—of a marriage and one woman’s quest through it all.
There are few things more difficult to overcome than infidelity. For many, it’s marriage-ending. But, what happens when an otherwise happy marriage suffers from an affair? Is there room for forgiveness and redemption?
These are the tough questions at the heart of Elizabeth LaBan’s charming, witty, and thought-provoking new novel BESIDE HERSELF (Lake Union Publishing; October 22, 2019), as a woman blindsided by her husband’s infidelity must decide whether she wants to stay and work on her marriage or leave and start anew.
Hannah Bent is beside herself. Life as she’s known it has been a lie. At least, that’s how she feels when she discovers texts on her husband’s phone from another woman. A woman he’d been sleeping with while traveling for business. She thinks her marriage is over. Isn’t that what happens after an affair? Her husband, Joel, wants nothing more than to stay together and repent for his mistake for the rest of their lives. Hannah is so angry and upset, it’s hard to imagine ever feeling secure in the relationship again. But she’s not sure what she wants. She’s seen friends divorce, and it’s not pretty. After all, they have an otherwise happy life together, and she still loves him, although begrudgingly. But, how can she ever move past this?
Furious and stuck, she makes a radical proposition: she will have an affair of her own to even the score. Desperate for forgiveness, her husband agrees. As Hannah attempts to dive into the dating pool, going on numerous awkward dates, she learns just how challenging it is for a middle-aged mother of two to meet someone. When she’s just about given up hope for a successful and fulfilling affair, she finds a deep connection in the most unexpected of places. This genuine connection is both exciting and concerning. What does it mean for her future? Her marriage? What does she really want?
BESIDE HERSELF is the latest example of Elizabeth LaBan’s gift for writing heartfelt, surprising, and poignant novels about marriage and motherhood with utterly relatable heroines you can’t help but root for—no matter what. This surprising twist on an affair and its aftermath is sure to leave readers thinking about the unexpected detours we take in life and how they often bring us back to exactly where we want to be.