{"product_id":"fancy-meeting-you-hardcover","title":"Fancy Meeting You - Hardcover","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eLouise Marburg\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA middle-aged woman's unlikely and hilarious tardy coming-of-age.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\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.\u003cp\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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 212\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.1 x 8.6 x 5.5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e June 02, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43445213495385,"sku":"9781958888834","price":33.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/6465\/9545\/files\/kLreLouWJT9781958888834.webp?v=1781819926","url":"https:\/\/warrenssanctuaryofthemind.myshopify.com\/products\/fancy-meeting-you-hardcover","provider":"Warren's sanctuary of the mind","version":"1.0","type":"link"}