-
Access Our
Best Book Club
Books of 2025!
A Novel
In an exuberant post WWII New York City, a young woman is forced to reinvent her life and choose between the safe and the ethical, and the men who represent each.
Set in New York City in the heady aftermath of World War II when the men were coming home, the women were exhaling in relief, and everyone was having babies, The Trouble With You is the story of a young woman whose rosy future is upended in a single instant. Raised never to step out of bounds, educated in one of the Sister Seven Colleges for a career as a wife and mother, torn between her cousin Mimi who is determined to keep her a "nice girl"―the kind that marries a doctor―and her aunt Rose who has a rebellious past of her own, Fanny struggles to raise her young daughter and forge a new life by sheer will and pluck. When she gets a job as a secretary to the "queen" of radio serials―never to be referred to as soaps―she discovers she likes working, and through her friendship with an actress who stars in the series and a man who writes them, comes face to face with the blacklist which is destroying careers and wrecking lives. Ultimately, Fanny must decide between playing it safe or doing what she knows is right in this vivid evocation of a world that seems at once light years away and strangely immediate.
"Set during the 1950s Red Scare, this novel features Fanny Fabricant, an unlikely heroine who makes a journey from conformity to independence and strength. Feldman has created a compelling woman who knows her own mind and insists on using it."
―Kirkus Reviews
"Rich in colorful characters, Feldman's riveting tale is one of resilience, determination, and hope." ―Booklist
"Ellen Feldman has done it again. This time she conjures up New York City in the post-war years, as loyalty oaths and blacklists begin to take their toll, and as the irresistible Fanny Fabricant grapples with familial expectations and societal conventions. The result is an indelible novel suffused with heart and history, fresh, fast-paced, and exhilarating."
―Stacy Schiff, New York Times bestselling author
"Emotionally compelling and gorgeously written, full of Feldman's trademark wit and wry observation, The Trouble with You is as addictive as the world of the 1950s soap operas in which the novel is set, and as serious and satisfying as the finest fiction being written today."
―Liza Gyllenhaal, author of A Place for Us and Local Knowledge
"I love this book in so many ways.... The descriptions of Charlie and Fanny working together amount to, for me, expert instruction in the craft of storytelling."
―Frederick E. Allen, former editor at New York, American Heritage, and Forbes
This information about The Trouble with You was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Ellen Feldman, a 2009 Guggenheim fellow, is the author of The Living and the Lost, Paris Never Leaves You, Terrible Virtue (optioned by Black Bicycle for a feature film), The Unwitting, Next to Love, Scottsboro (shortlisted for the Orange Prize), The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank, and Lucy.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
.gif)