Since editing the New York Times bestseller The Bitch in the House, Cathi Hanauer has become the unofficial spokeswoman for the contemporary married woman. Now, in Sweet Ruin, she gives us a story of marital crisis and sexual tension featuring a character close to her heart-and recognizable to us all.
Thirty-seven-year-old Elayna Leopold used to be a New York magazine editor, until she and her young family moved to suburban New Jersey. Two years ago, the death of an infant son sent her into a deep depression-a darkness that begins to lift in the company of a handsome, unattached neighbor. As she fights yearnings that could destroy everything that gives her life shape, a threat to her young daughter’s welfare emerges from an unlikely source, throwing Elayna’s questionable morality into stark relief-and forcing her to make choices she never dreamed she would have to make.
Smart and gripping, Elayna’s story raises heartrendering questions about the challenges of ordinary life-marriage, career, independence, and sexuality-that have no easy answers. Sweet Ruin is a triumph of contemporary fiction from a writer known for her candor and wisdom.

Despite more power and choices than ever before, women are still angry — that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as anger is what continues to open the door for change. In this collection, 15 women speak boldly and passionately about choices they’ve made — about sex, children, love and work — and explore what’s working and what is not. Their essays — always provocative, honest, witty and wise — are the culmination of the lessons of the past two decades, the ‘me’ years and the therapy years, the years that have taught women to express themselves and acknowledge their needs. As celebratory as they are critical, these brilliant essays reflect the truth about life.

Audio contains the following essays, written and read by the contributors:

Introduction — Cathi Hanauer

Getting the Milk for Free — Veronica Chambers

Crossing to Safety — Jen Marshall

Moving In. Moving Out. Moving On. — Sarah Miller

Papa Don’t Preach — Kerry Herlihy

I Do. Not.: Why I Won’t Marry — Catherine Newman

Killing the Puritan Within — Kate Christensen

My Mother’s Ring: Caught Between Two Families — Helen Schulman

Attila the Honey I’m Home — Kristin van Ogtrop

The Myth of Co-Parenting: How It Was Supposed to Be. How It Was. — Hope Edelman

Daddy Dearest: What Happens When He Does More Than His Half? — Laurie Abraham

Crossing the Line in the Sand: How Mad Can Mother Get? — Elissa Schappell

Married at 46: The Agony and the Ecstacy — Nancy Wartik

The Fat Lady Sings — Natalie Kusz

What Independence Has Come to Mean to Me: The Pain of Solitude.The Pleasure of

Self-Knowledge. — Vivian Gornick

More than a decade after the New York Times bestselling anthology The Bitch in the House spoke up loud and clear for a generation of young woman, nine of the original contributors are back–along with sixteen captivating new voices–sharing their ruminations from an older, stronger, and wiser perspective about love, sex, work, family, independence, body-image, health, and aging: the critical flash points of women’s lives today.

“Born out of anger,” the essays in The Bitch in the House chronicled the face of womanhood at the beginning of a new millennium. Now those funny, smart, passionate contributors–today less bitter and resentful, and more confident, competent, and content–capture the spirit of postfeminism in this equally provocative, illuminating, and compelling companion anthology.

Having aged into their forties, fifties, and sixties, these “bitches”–bestselling authors, renowned journalists, and critically acclaimed novelists–are back . . . and better than ever. In The Bitch Is Back, Cathi Hanauer, Kate Christensen, Sarah Crichton, Debora Spar, Ann Hood, Veronica Chambers, and nineteen other women offer unique views on womanhood and feminism today. Some of the “original bitches” (OBs) revisit their earlier essays to reflect on their previous selves. All reveal how their lives have changed in the intervening years–whether they stayed coupled, left marriages, or had affairs; developed cancer or other physical challenges; coped with partners who strayed, died, or remained faithful; became full-time wage earners or homemakers; opened up their marriages; remained childless or became parents; or experienced other meaningful life transitions.

As a “new wave” of feminists begins to take center stage, this powerful, timely collection sheds a much-needed light on both past and present, offering understanding, compassion, and wisdom for modern women’s lives, all the while pointing toward the exciting possibilities of tomorrow.

From the New York Times bestselling editor of The Bitch in the House and the author of the novels Sweet Ruin and Gone comes an original short story about a young doctor whose wife has just left him and the woman whose chance with him has finally come. Set in Manhattan, it showcases Cathi Hanauer’s talent for capturing the nuances of modern love. Just as the main character, Adam, is devastated by his wife’s very recent abandonment, he finds himself drawn to the attractive co-worker he knows has a crush on him. It’s anguish and excitement all at once and brilliantly told. Originally written nearly twenty years ago, it eventually partially evolved into Gone, Hanauer’s incredibly compelling new novel about a middle-aged woman whose husband drives the babysitter home one night-and simply doesn’t come back