I Want You to Be Happy

AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVELIST OF 2026 ´Prepare to see this everywhere.´ Elle ´I was totally invested.´ Saba Sams ´I was utterly enthralled.´ Leslie Jamison ´Jem Calder is my new favourite writer.´ Andrew O´Hagan ´Will appeal to Cleopatra And Frankenstein fans, and the setting and themes is reminiscent of Evenings And Weekends.´ Stylist Chuck and Joey meet in a bar. He´s in his mid-thirties; she´s twelve years younger. He´s long abandoned his ambition of becoming a novelist and now works as a copywriter at a big ad agency. ´Lead copywriter,´ he corrects himself. Joey lives paycheck to paycheck on her barista wages and privately dreams of making it as a poet. They go back to Chuck´s luxury flat-a world away from Joey´s cramped house-share, the crumbs in her bed. Soon, Joey´s imagining a future between them, and Chuck´s moving on from a mistake in his recent past. Amazing, how meeting a new person can make you feel so new. Funny, excruciating, and true, I Want You to Be Happy is a sharp-eyed tale of two people searching for meaning and connection in modern times, missing the mark maybe, but still trying.