{"product_id":"fancy-meeting-you-9781958888834","title":"Fancy Meeting You","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA middle-aged woman's unlikely and hilarious tardy coming-of-age.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMeet Laura Harrigan. Depending on who Laura is talking to, she's a psychiatrist, a business consultant, or a mother of twin boys at Yale. That last one is a new lie she's trying on for size. In reality, Laura is middle-aged, childless, \"involuntarily unmarried,\" and works a job far beneath her capabilities. She is a graduate of Harvard, but as she notes, \"Meeting other people's expectations is something I am famously unable to do.\" Most nights, Laura can be found at Baltimore's least-glamorous dive, The Chicken Box, where the bartender knows when to call her an Uber. At the weekend, she might be hooking up with a care home aide at her elderly father's birthday party, much to the chagrin of her uptight sister, Nadine.\u003c\/p\u003eThe story follows Laura in her home in Baltimore and elsewhere through her fiftieth year. Each chapter marks her encounter with a new character--a family member or two, a potential lover, complete strangers-each offering their own brand of wisdom or judgment or wacky opinion. Somehow, through these entanglements, Laura begins to gather bits and pieces of the self-knowledge she is lacking. Most, if not all, coming-of-age stories are about young people, but this is a middle-aged coming-of-age.\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Louise Marburg\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Blair\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/02\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 212\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.75lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.60h x 5.50w x 1.10d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781958888834\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLouise Marburg\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of three collections of stories, the most recent being \u003ci\u003eYou Have Reached Your Destination\u003c\/i\u003e, which was favorably reviewed in the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e and the \u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e. She has been published in such journals as \u003ci\u003eStory\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Hudson Review\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePloughshares\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Missouri Review\u003c\/i\u003e, and many others. Marburg studied design at the Kansas City Art Institute, is a graduate of New York University's Gallatin Division, and holds an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University's School of the Arts. She has been a scholar at the Sewanee Writers Conference and a fellow at the Kenyon Writing Workshops, and her work has been supported by the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. A native of Baltimore, she lives in New York City with her husband, the artist Charles Marburg. \u003ci\u003eFancy Meeting You\u003c\/i\u003e is her first novel.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"booksdeli.com","offers":[{"title":"Louise Marburg \/ Hardcover \/ English","offer_id":67804794519709,"sku":"9781958888834","price":32.34,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0619\/5648\/9373\/files\/img_6cd739e5-246f-4434-b877-188b646e08ee.jpg?v=1794382882","url":"https:\/\/booksdeli.com\/products\/fancy-meeting-you-9781958888834","provider":"booksdeli.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}