I Want You to Be Happy cover art

I Want You to Be Happy

A Novel

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I Want You to Be Happy

Written by: Jem Calder
Narrated by: Christopher Bonwell, Gemma Lawrence
Free with 30-day trial

₹199.00 per month after 30-day trial. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for ₹591.84

Buy Now for ₹591.84

“I Want You to Be Happy is an irresistible novel that asks complex questions about contemporary life and refuses easy answers. I couldn’t stop reading.” —Sally Rooney

“A totally devastating—and all too relatable—portrait of modern romance.” ―Vogue

Named a Best Book of 2026 So Far by The New Yorker • An Observer Best Debut Novelist of 2026


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 major change 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 trying.
Coming of Age Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Psychological
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