Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2021
336 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
A wise, bighearted, boundlessly joyful novel of love, disaster, and unconventional family.
Jane falls in love with Duncan easily. He is charming, good-natured, and handsome but unfortunately, he has also slept with nearly every woman in Boyne City, Michigan. Jane sees Duncan's old girlfriends everywhere--at restaurants, at the grocery store, even three towns away.
While Jane may be able to come to terms with dating the world's most prolific seducer of women, she wishes she did not have to share him quite so widely. His ex-wife, Aggie, a woman with shiny hair and pale milkmaid skin, still has Duncan mow her lawn. His coworker, Jimmy, comes and goes from Duncan's apartment at the most inopportune times. Sometimes Jane wonders if a relationship can even work with three people in it--never mind four. Five if you count Aggie's eccentric husband, Gary. Not to mention all the other residents of Boyne City, who freely share with Jane their opinions of her choices.
But any notion Jane had of love and marriage changes with one terrible car crash. Soon Jane's life is permanently intertwined with Duncan's, Aggie's, and Jimmy's, and Jane knows she will never have Duncan to herself. But could it be possible that a deeper kind of happiness is right in front of Jane's eyes? A novel that is alternately bittersweet and laugh-out-loud funny, Katherine Heiny's Early Morning Riser is her most astonishingly wonderful work to date.
"A deep awareness of the ways the potential for tragedy lies just beneath the surface of small-town life gives the proceedings a sense of gravity and holds the humor in perfect balance. This is a winner." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"It's easy to adore the characters Heiny conjures...[Early Morning Riser] finds beauty and humor in connection and community, family and friendship, and the way love can develop and deepen over time. A heartwarming novel with a small-town vibe that sparkles like wine sipped with friends under backyard fairy lights." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Heiny brings back some familiar elements from 2017's Standard Deviation, as laugh-out-loud scenes seamlessly flow into deep consideration of what it means to be a family and the power of accepting one another, eccentricities and all. This irresistible delight is a much-needed balm during these unnerving times." - Library Journal (starred review)
"A warm-hearted tribute to small town living, with all its attendant exasperations…Witty, exuberant…Heiny clearly writes with a great deal of love for her characters and location, but also offers real insight into the ways in which accidental intimacy can lead to a deeper and truer understanding of ourselves." - Refinery29
"If you enjoyed All Adults Here by Emma Straub, read Early Morning Riser…The story, which spans 17 years, sparkles with Heiny's trademark witticisms and cutting observations." - Washington Post
"A 'modern Jane Austen'...[Heiny] unites stylistic verve with laugh-out-loud humor, and is a perfect balance of literary and accessible...I'd read the back of a cereal box if it was written by Katherine Heiny." - Forbes
"Katherine Heiny's books feel like spending time with a smart, funny and beloved friend who always has a million interesting things to talk about but always wants to know about you, too. She is a charming and insightful and unique writer and Early Morning Riser is every bit as good as Standard Deviation, if not better." - Lisa Jewell, author of The Family Upstairs
"Early Morning Riser is a charming, witty and heartwarming novel about life and love in a small town that is destined to improve your mood and restore your faith in humankind. Katherine Heiny — who has long been a personal favorite writer of mine — is at the height of her storytelling powers. Every sentence is a treat!" - Elin Hilderbrand, bestselling author of 28 Summers
"Early Morning Riser is a joy of a novel. Beautiful, poignant and laugh-out-loud funny. It's the kind of book you'll have no choice but to stay up reading all night, and then you'll be sad when you've run out of pages. Katherine Heiny's voice is unlike anyone else's, and it's just what the world needs now." - J. Courtney Sullivan, bestselling author of Friends and Strangers
This information about Early Morning Riser was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Katherine Heiny is the author of Standard Deviation and Single, Carefree, Mellow, and her short fiction has appeared in the New Yorker, the Atlantic, and many other magazines. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with her husband and children, and is a former resident of London, the Hague, and Boyne City, Michigan.
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
