I Want You to Be Happy cover art

I Want You to Be Happy

'I couldn't stop reading.' Sally Rooney

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I Want You to Be Happy

By: Jem Calder
Narrated by: Christopher Bonwell, Gemma Lawrence
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* AVAILABLE WHILE STOCKS LAST - LIMITED FIRST PRINT RUN: featuring an exclusive hidden cover *

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.

©2026 Jem Calder (P)2026 Faber & Faber Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Funny
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I enjoyed the writing, but I found the characters devolved into cliché by the end. Privileged white man of a certain age, struggling young woman with creative talents going to waste. We’ve been here before and the story is invariably the same. I’m not sure what the writer was trying to say with the closing chapters, whatever the case it just felt deeply unsatisfactory and slightly unsavoury. But maybe that’s the point…

A miserable traipse through millennial & Gen Z dating

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I was so invested in the characters that I was sad when I finished the book. Brilliantly written - the narrators were spot on too. Looking forward to Jem Calder’s next novel.

Loved it!

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Loved this perceptive, funny love story. I really cared about the characters and thought the performances were spot on. A great listen!

Smart and funny love story

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how ever did I finish it, should have taken gut feeling and just give up. no story, sadness, drunkenness, idiot man, terrible story

boring,boring and more boring

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