Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jul 2021
304 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Newlyweds Asha and Cyrus build an app that replaces religious rituals and soon find themselves running one of the most popular social media platforms in the world.
Meet Asha Ray.
Brilliant coder and possessor of a Pi tattoo, Asha is poised to revolutionize artificial intelligence when she is reunited with her high school crush, Cyrus Jones.
Cyrus inspires Asha to write a new algorithm. Before she knows it, she's abandoned her PhD program, they've exchanged vows, and gone to work at an exclusive tech incubator called Utopia.
The platform creates a sensation, with millions of users seeking personalized rituals every day. Will Cyrus and Asha's marriage survive the pressures of sudden fame, or will she become overshadowed by the man everyone is calling the new messiah?
In this gripping, blistering novel, award-winning author Tahmima Anam takes on faith and the future with a gimlet eye and a deft touch. Come for the radical vision of human connection, stay for the wickedly funny feminist look at startup culture and modern partnership. Can technology—with all its limits and possibilities—disrupt love?
BookBrowse Review
For me, The Startup Wife was predictable, preachy, somewhat clichéd and just not compelling. The characters felt like shallow caricatures. It may appeal to millennials or younger adults, but the book grated against many of my Gen X sensibilities. I guess that means Gen X has gotten old. Maybe they'll stop saying "Okay, Boomer," soon and change it to "Whatever, X-er."
Other Reviews
"Anam provides a piercing perspective on marital and business institutions and gender bias and cultural clashes, and weaves in rich local color as Asha grows reacquainted with her childhood home and her parents' Muslim community. This is a powerful statement on the consequences of public achievement on private happiness." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A brilliantly incisive social novel...Because The Startup Wife is sexy and funny and puts relationships at the forefront, it might be easy to overlook its depth and sophistication. But The Startup Wife's insights about modern relationships, gender politics, race, technology, and culture are as excellent and vital as its storytelling." - BookPage (starred review)
"A clever, often funny anti-romance novel set in the world of platforms, launches, engagements, and turmeric lattes." - Kirkus Reviews
"Offers readers a glimpse of the challenges of creating and running a startup and brings the issue of gender equality in work and relationships to the forefront...Anam's modern tale has plenty of talking points that will make it a good selection for book groups." - Library Journal
"Anam's not-quite-love-story shrewdly exposes gender inequity, racism, homophobia, and male white privilege, achieving sharply exposing, skillfully engaging results." - Booklist
"Explores an essential question for couples: Can you be both romantic partners and business partners? Newlyweds Asha and Cyrus are about to find out." - Marie Claire
"Faith, feminism, and our automated future make for a delicious mash-up in this satirical novel... . Anam's penetrating look at the tech world's discrimination pairs beautifully with her meditation on marriage and faith." - Esquire
"Anam has a wicked sense of humor, taking aim at startup culture and doomsday preppers while pointing out the lack of feminism and women of color in the tech industry." - Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Tahmima Anam deftly uses humor to explore both start up culture and the institution of marriage in an utterly charming but also genuinely thoughtful way. With generosity and sharp intelligence, Anam offers real insight into the collision between romance and ambition, and the tangled relationship between faith and technology." - Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind
This information about The Startup Wife 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.
Photo: Abeer Y Hoque
Tahmima Anam is the recipient of a Commonwealth Writers Prize, an O. Henry Prize, and has been named one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists. She is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times and was recently elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, she was educated at Mount Holyoke College and Harvard University and now lives in London where she is on the board of ROLI, a music tech company founded by her husband.
Name Pronunciation
Tahmima Anam: Emphasis on the second syllable of last name
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