Readers' rating:
Publishes
May 21, 2024
352 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
As far as Jolene is concerned, her interactions with her colleagues should start and end with her official duties as an admin for Supershops, Inc. Unfortunately, her irritating, incompetent coworkers don't seem to understand the importance of boundaries.
Her secret to survival? She vents her grievances in petty email postscripts, then changes the text color to white so no one can see. That is until one of her secret messages is exposed. Her punishment: sensitivity training (led by the suspiciously friendly HR guy, Cliff) and rigorous email restrictions.
When an IT mix-up grants her access to her entire department's private emails and DMs, Jolene knows she should report it, but who could resist reading what their coworkers are really saying? And when she discovers layoffs are coming, she realizes this might just be the key to saving her job. The plan is simple: gain her boss's favor, convince HR she's Supershops material, and beat out the competition.
But as Jolene is drawn further into her coworker's private worlds and realizes they are each keeping secrets, her carefully constructed walls begin to crumble—especially around Cliff, who she definitely cannot have feelings for. Eventually she will need to decide if she's ready to leave the comfort of her cubicle, even if that means coming clean to her colleagues.
Crackling with laugh-out-loud dialogue and relatable observations, I Hope This Finds You Well is a fresh and surprisingly tender comedy about loneliness and love beyond our computer screens. This sparkling debut novel will open your heart to the everyday eccentricities of work culture and the undeniable human connection that comes along with it.
"In her debut, Sue creates a vivid portrait of a truly lonely, heartbroken woman. Anyone who has worked in an office will appreciate the level of detail Sue uses to describe the experience—the particular bleakness of a sad office party, the petty gossip, the alliances and enmities... . A beautiful, honest, and often funny look at loneliness and the courage it takes to simply keep going." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Delightfully quirky ... The workplace hijinks produce steady laughs, and Sue adds depth through the backstory of Ellie, with whom Jolene found solace as a fellow misfit. This is a must-read." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"I Hope This Finds You Well is like a donut in a break room: unexpected, surprisingly sweet, and totally made my day. Which is to say: I devoured it! ... Fans of The Office will delight." —Shelby Van Pelt, New York Times bestselling author of Remarkably Bright Creatures
"Snarky, romantic, and wickedly heartfelt, I Hope This Finds You Well is like the first perfect cup of coffee out of the office coffee pot. If you're looking for your next favorite read, this book has everything—vengeful coworkers, fake engagements, and a hero with a heart of gold. Natalie Sue's debut is an absolute stunner!" —Ashley Poston, New York Times bestselling author of The Dead Romantics
"Bright, hilarious, witty, and so moving, I absolutely loved Natalie Sue's debut novel, I Hope This Finds You Well. Sue portrays the tedium and triumph of life in an office cubicle, along with its water cooler chats, bad coffee, awkward happy hours... and the magic that happens when lonely people search for connection." —Amanda Eyre Ward, New York Times bestselling author of The Jetsetters and The Lifeguards
This information about I Hope This Finds You Well 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.
Natalie Sue is a Canadian author of Iranian and British descent. She spent her formative years moving around western Canada with a brief stint in Scotland, where she discovered her passion for storytelling as a means of connection and reading as a means of comfort. When she's not writing, she enjoys bingeing great and terrible TV, attempting pottery, and procuring houseplants. She lives in Calgary with her husband, daughter, and dog. I Hope This Finds You Well is her debut novel.
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