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.
Praise for Creatures of Habit
"I loved wandering through San Francisco with Gina, sharing this long winter day of surprising encounters, tender connections, and memories both painful and full of joy. A tender, expansive exploration of loss, resilience, and the power of the imagination." - Rachel Pastan, author of We're So Lucky to Live Here
"When an out-of-water amphibious man appears in Gina’s kitchen on the day of her soon-to-be ex-husband’s engagement party, she finds herself able, finally, to examine the realities of her life. Creatures of Habit, the debut novel by Jennifer Yeh, is a lyrical and imaginative story about grief and endurance, set on a single San Francisco day. Can one learn to honor what once was without drowning in that history? Yeh’s generous novel deftly shows us how this is possible, a triumph of love, courage and understanding.” - Susan Scarf Merrell, author of Shirley: A Novel
"Playfully written, profound, wildly interior and strange and full of questions of family and love - this is a book I read slowly, because I wanted to savor the language, the empathy, and yes, the gorgeous frogman." - Amber Sparks, author of Happy People Don't Live Here
