Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket

A TIME 'New Books You Should Read'A People magazine 'Book of the Week'A New York Times Editors' ChoiceWith a foreword by Elizabeth Strout ‘Electric: with wit, with rage, with grief, with the kind of prose that makes you both laugh and thrill to the darker, spikier emotions just barely visible under the bright surface. What a wonderful collection of stories’ Lauren Groff Another day! And then another and another and another. It seemed as if it would all go on forever in that exquisitely boring and beautiful way. But of course it wouldn’t; everyone knows that.In this collection, Hilma Wolitzer invites us inside the private world of domestic bliss, seen mostly through the lens of Paulie and Howard’s gloriously ordinary marriage.From hasty weddings to meddlesome neighbours, ex-wives who just won’t leave, to sleepless nights spent worrying about unanswered chainmail, Wolitzer captures the tensions, contradictions and unexpected detours of daily life with wit, candour and an acutely observant eye.Including stories first published in magazines in the 1960s and 1970s – alongside new writing from Wolitzer, now in her nineties – Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket reintroduces a beloved writer to be embraced by a new generation of readers.‘A fascinating time capsule of womanhood, marriage and motherhood over the last century … A fabulous book’ Emma Straub ‘Immensely gratifying, poignant, funny … Breathtaking’ Elizabeth Strout, from the foreword

Short stories that pack a pithy poignant punch by a 91-year-old mistress of the craft … From the first page, dialogue and descriptions crackle through the quotidian and Hilma’s piquant prose illuminates scenes both prosaic and profound, Wolitzer’s vision of the world, for all its sorrow, is often hilarious and always compassionate., [Wolitzer’s writing] shines a light on the extraordinary and magical in seemingly ordinary, every day lives … Wolitzer is sure to find many new fans with this collection, Wolitzer is a genius of the short story … Wolitzer is above all an observer, and she has a wonderful eye: compassionate, slightly jaundiced, erotic, urbane and often very funny, Wolitzer is a champ at the closely observed, droll novel of manners.

Hilma Wolitzer is a recipient of Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, and a Barnes & Noble Writers for Writers Award. She has taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, New York University, Columbia University, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. Her first published story appeared when she was thirty-six, and her first novel eight years later. Her many stories and novels have drawn critical praise for illuminating the dark interiors of the American home. She lives in New York City.