A funny and heartfelt high-concept commercial women’s fiction novel with the book club appeal of Rebecca Serle and JoJo Moyes and an irresistible « what if? » premise built around an irresistible hook: how much of a life can turn on a seemingly inconsequential choice?

IN ANOTHER LIFE
by Stephanie Merry
Zibby Books, January 2028
(via Nancy Yost Literary)

Mary Louise O’Shaughnessy is in trouble. Or, more accurately, two versions of her are.

In one life, she’s Polly: a single mother to a seven-year-old daughter, struggling with mysterious chronic pain and accustomed to handling everything on her own. Then, after another exhausting day, a stranger materializes in her house claiming to be Guy, her husband from another world. He desperately needs to get home, and Polly may be his only way back.

In another life, she’s Goldie: 9 months pregnant and increasingly frantic because her husband hasn’t come home. As the hours pass, every possible worst-case scenario begins unfurling in her mind — including the prospect of giving birth to their daughter without him…and the possibility that the secretive technology he’s been working on has sent him into the multiverse without a way back.

Polly and Goldie’s lives diverged after one night in a bar years ago. But when Goldie develops pregnancy complications in her world and Guy becomes unexpectedly sickened in Polly’s, both women are forced to admit that whether you’re raising a child or trying to get home across the multiverse, sometimes it really does take a village, in this case one made up of Polly’s annoying but increasingly attractive Nordic neighbor, Guy’s science nerd colleagues, and Cat, the women’s fiercely-protective older sister. IN ANOTHER LIFE combines lovable characters, warmth, humor, and a story grounded in a universal question. It’s the fantasy of seeing the life you might have lived; the mistakes and successes that shape us; and, ultimately, the communities we build when we finally allow ourselves to need other people.

Stephanie Merry is currently on the wellness team at The Washington Post. She previously spent eight years as deputy editor of the Post’s books section and, before that, covered film, television and culture.