Alison

Espach

New York Times Bestselling Author

Fiction Novelist

Travels from: Providence, RI

“Espach’s wit and warmth deliver a gratifying story about how people who have given up might find a reason to start caring again.” ― The Washington Post

Alison Espach is the New York Times best-selling author of The Wedding People, a New York Times Editor’s Choice, a TODAY Show #ReadwithJenna Book Club pick, a Barnes and Noble Book Club Pick, and the #1 Indie Next Pick for August 2024. The Wedding People will be published in over twenty countries. She is also the author of Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance, a Chicago Tribune and NPR “Best Book of 2022,” as well as The Adults, a New York Times Editor’s Choice and Barnes and Noble Discover pick. Her fictional audio series In-Depth Market Research Interviews with Dead People is an Audible Original. She has written for McSweeney’s, Vogue, Outside, LitHub, Joyland and other places. She lives and teaches creative writing in Rhode Island.

Alison received her MFA from Washington University in St. Louis. She has been a writer-in-residence at the Ucross Foundation for the Arts, Millay Arts, The Wassaic Project, the Cuttyhunk Writers Residency and the San Miguel Literary Sala.

The Wedding People: A Novel

Henry Holt and Co. |

July 30, 2024

Contemporary Fiction

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A Today Show #ReadwithJenna Book Club Pick

A propulsive and uncommonly wise novel about one unexpected wedding guest and the surprising people who help her start anew.

It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn wearing a green dress and gold heels, not a bag in sight, alone. She’s immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years―she hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband, only now she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe’s plan―which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.

In turns absurdly funny and devastatingly tender, Alison Espach’s The Wedding People is ultimately an incredibly nuanced and resonant look at the winding paths we can take to places we never imagined―and the chance encounters it sometimes takes to reroute us.

Bestseller, Celebrity Book Club Pick, Comedy & Humor, Fiction, Grief & Loss, Mental Health & Overcoming Trauma

Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance

Henry Holt and Co |

May 17, 2022

Literary Fiction

Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR and The Chicago Tribune

“Heartbreaking and funny, often in the same sentence―a deeply felt, finely wrought, and highly satisfying novel. Alison Espach has created a family whose every sorrow, joy, and idiosyncrasy is utterly, vibrantly real.”―New York Times bestselling author Claire Lombardo

For much of her life, Sally Holt has been mystified by the things her older sister, Kathy, seems to have been born knowing. Kathy has answers for all of Sally’s questions about life, about love, and about Billy Barnes, a rising senior and local basketball star who mans the concession stand at the town pool. The girls have been fascinated by Billy ever since he jumped off the roof in elementary school, but Billy has never shown much interest in them until the summer before Sally begins eighth grade. By then, their mutual infatuation with Billy is one of the few things the increasingly different sisters have in common. Sally spends much of that summer at the pool, watching in confusion and excitement as her sister falls deeper in love with Billy―until a tragedy leaves Sally’s life forever intertwined with his.

Opening in the early nineties and charting almost two decades of shared history and missed connections, Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance is both a breathtaking love story about two broken people who are unexplainably, inconveniently drawn to each other and a wryly astute coming-of-age tale brimming with unexpected moments of joy.

Fiction, Mental Health & Overcoming Trauma

The Adults: A Novel

Scribner |

February 1, 2011

Coming of Age Fiction

From the author of the Read with Jenna pick The Wedding People, a ruefully funny debut novel that deftly dissects matters of the heart and captures the lives of children and adults as they come to terms with life, death, and love.

At the center of this affluent suburban universe is Emily Vidal, a smart and snarky teenager, who gets involved in a dangerous relationship. Among the cast of unforgettable characters is Emily’s father, whose fiftieth birthday party has the adults descending upon the Vidals’ patio; her mother, who has orchestrated the elaborate party even though she and her husband are getting a divorce; and an assortment of eccentric neighbors, high school teachers, and teenagers who teem with anxiety and an unbridled desire to be noticed, and ultimately loved.

An irresistible chronicle of a young woman’s struggle to grow up, The Adults lays bare a world where an adult and a child can so dangerously be mistaken for the same thing.

Family Narratives, Fiction

Coming Soon!

“Working with Alison Espach for our Novel Beginnings event was an absolute highlight for both our team and our writers. Alison has a rare gift for making complex storytelling principles feel immediately clear, practical, and energizing. Her session distilled the craft of a powerful novel opening down to one deceptively simple question: what does your protagonist want—and why can’t they get it? That framework alone gave our participants a completely new way to approach their first pages.” — ProWritingAid, 2026

“The Wedding People is the perfect book to wrap up your summer reading. . . . heartwarming [and] hilarious.” ― Jenna Bush Hager, The Today Show’s #ReadwithJenna

“A collision of diametrically opposed life events and general drama, the likes of which we haven’t seen since Maggie Shipstead’s Seating Arrangements. . . . Espach has an eye for the full gamut of emotions that go hand in hand with lifelong commitment, from humor to self-involvement to pathos.” ― Elisabeth Egan, The New York Times Book Review

“Deeply satisfying. . . . A story of what it means to lift oneself out of one life and into another through acts of individual will and fellowship with others. . . . Espach is now three for three on delivering funny, emotionally moving explorations of the difficulties people have in being themselves.” ― John Warner, Chicago Tribune

“Deceptively complex…Espach’s story of a life-changing chance encounter is as rewarding as it is unexpected.” ― Lucy Feldman, Time

“A refreshingly sharp and funny examination of loss, love and wrestling with the expectations we have for our lives. This book is the rare lush escape that avoids falling into predictability; the characters feel full and real, and offer genuine moments of insight and warmth amidst their quirky circumstances.” ― Jillian Capewell, HuffPost

“They say a good actor can read a phone book and still keep an audience spellbound. Alison Espach is that kind of writer. She is a master of taking the seemingly mundane and creating moments that transfix.” ― Maren Longbella, Star Tribune

“By deftly invoking many popular romantic comedy tropes, Espach fills this novel with champagne-tinged fizz, while never losing sight of the more sober emotional truths that kicked off her narrative.” ― Bustle

“Witty dialogue is just a bonus in this engrossing read centering on complex women making life-changing decisions. Recommend to readers who enjoy Sally Rooney, Curtis Sittenfeld, or Elizabeth Berg.” ― Library Journal, starred review

“The Wedding People is so much more than a funny story (though it is very funny). Espach has penned a keenly observed novel about depression, love, the ways women make themselves small, and how one woman got over it. Fully realized and completely memorable.” ― Booklist, starred review

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Honors, Awards & Recognition

New York Times Bestseller
New York Times Editor’s Choice
A Today Show #ReadwithJenna Book Club Pick
A Barnes & Noble Book Club Pick
A #1 Indie Next Pick August 2024
A Chicago Tribune Best Book of 2022
An NPR Best Book of 2022