Creatures of Habit

A woman learns to see her future in a new light with the help of an amphibious man who crawls through her window the day of her ex’s engagement party in this coming-of-middle-age novel for fans of The Correspondent and Remarkably Bright Creatures.

Gina Lee’s life was calm and comfortably predictable—until her husband Mark dropped a bomb that upended everything. After the unexpected death of his mother, Mark drifted out of the family orbit and then escaped its gravitational pull completely, leaving to start a new relationship with a younger woman.

Now, on the day of Mark’s engagement party, Gina finds her family scattered and herself adrift, reckoning with a future that looks nothing like the one she imagined and a past she must rewrite. As Gina struggles through the hours of this difficult day, she wonders how to go forward and what she wants for herself.

It’s only when a strange amphibious creature crawls through her window to ask for help that Gina begins to understand that her life is not over. In fact, with the unlikely wisdom of her new friend, she finds that it might be just beginning.

Told over the course of a single day and with a poignantly observant eye, Jennifer Yeh’s moving debut speaks to the shifting seasons of life and the deeply human ability to find joy in a few perfect moments.