Meg Wolitzer Popular Books

Meg Wolitzer Biography & Facts

Meg Wolitzer (born May 28, 1959) is an American novelist, known for The Wife, The Ten-Year Nap, The Uncoupling, The Interestings, and The Female Persuasion. She works as an instructor in the MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton. Life and career Wolitzer was born in Brooklyn and raised in Syosset, New York, the daughter of novelist Hilma Wolitzer (née Liebman) and psychologist Morton Wolitzer. She was raised Jewish. Wolitzer studied creative writing at Smith College and graduated from Brown University in 1981. She wrote her first novel, Sleepwalking, a story of three college girls obsessed with poetry and death, while still an undergraduate; it was published in 1982. Her following books include Hidden Pictures (1986), This Is Your Life (1988), Surrender, Dorothy (1998), The Wife (2003), The Position (2005), The Ten-Year Nap (2008), The Uncoupling (2011), and The Interestings (2013). Her short story "Tea at the House" was featured in 1998's Best American Short Stories collection. Her novel for younger readers, The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman, was published in 2011. She also co-authored, with Jesse Green, a book of cryptic crosswords, Nutcrackers: Devilishly Addictive Mind Twisters for the Insatiably Verbivorous (1991), and has written about the relative difficulty women writers face in gaining critical acclaim. She has taught creative writing at the University of Iowa's Writers' Workshop, Skidmore College, and, most recently, was a guest artist at Princeton University. Over the past decade she has also taught at both Stony Brook Southampton's MFA in Creative Writing program and the Southampton Writers Conference and the Florence Writers Workshop. Three films have been based on her work: This Is My Life, scripted and directed by Nora Ephron; the 2006 made-for-television movie Surrender, Dorothy; and the 2017 drama The Wife, starring Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce. The Uncoupling was the subject of the first coast-to-coast virtual book club discussion, via Skype. As of 2018, Wolitzer resides in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, with her husband, science writer Richard Panek. Works Novels Sleepwalking (1982) ISBN 9781594633133, OCLC 862097178 Hidden Pictures (1986) This Is Your Life (1988) Friends for Life 1994 ISBN 9780821750377, OCLC 32939325 Surrender, Dorothy (1998) The Wife (2003) ISBN 9780099478195, OCLC 908803171 The Position (2005) The Ten-Year Nap (2008) ISBN 9781594483547, OCLC 1003299133 The Uncoupling (2011) ISBN 9781594485657, OCLC 1021096351 The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman (2011) The Interestings (2013) ISBN 9780099584094, OCLC 1001585374 Belzhar (2014) ISBN 9780142426296, OCLC 904081649 The Female Persuasion (2018) ISBN 9781594488405, OCLC 993689357 To Night Owl from Dogfish (2019) ISBN 9781984815057 Children’s Books Millions of Maxes (2022) References External links Quotations related to Meg Wolitzer at Wikiquote. Discover the Meg Wolitzer popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Meg Wolitzer books.

Best Seller Meg Wolitzer Books of 2024

  • The Interestings synopsis, comments

    The Interestings

    Meg Wolitzer

    “Remarkable . . . With this book [Wolitzer] has surpassed herself.”The New York Times Book Review "A victory . . . The Interestings secures Wolitzer's place among the best nov...

  • The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman synopsis, comments

    The Fingertips of Duncan Dorfman

    Meg Wolitzer

    Friendship, family, and highstakes Scrabble come together in this compelling novel from a bestselling author Duncan Dorfman, April Blunt, and Nate Saviano don't seem to have much i...

  • Unsettled Ground synopsis, comments

    Unsettled Ground

    Claire Fuller

    Winner of the 2021 Costa Novel AwardFinalist for the Women's Prize in FictionNamed a Best Book of the Month by Entertainment Weekly, PopSugar, Bustle, Chicago Review of Books, Pure...

  • Late in the Day synopsis, comments

    Late in the Day

    Tessa Hadley

    “With each new book by Tessa Hadley, I grow more convinced that she’s one of the greatest stylists alive.”Ron Charles, Washington PostNew York Times Book Review Editors' Choice |A ...

  • Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket synopsis, comments

    Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket

    Hilma Wolitzer

    An NPR Best Book of the Year A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice An Electric Literature Best Short Story Collection of the Year Finalist for the Chautauqua Prize T...

  • The Uncoupling synopsis, comments

    The Uncoupling

    Meg Wolitzer

    From the New York Timesbestselling author of The Interestings and The Female Persuasion, a funny, provocative, revealing novel about female desire. When the elliptical new d...

  • The Brown Reader synopsis, comments

    The Brown Reader

    Judy Sternlight

    “To be up all night in the darkness of your youth but to be ready for the day to come…that was what going to Brown felt like.” Jeffrey EugenidesIn celebration of Brown University’s...

  • The Letting Go synopsis, comments

    The Letting Go

    Deborah Markus

    Everyone Emily has ever loved has been brutally murdered. The killer has never been caught, but Emily knows who’s responsible.She is. It’s the only possible explanation. Emily is t...

  • The Ten-Year Nap synopsis, comments

    The Ten-Year Nap

    Meg Wolitzer

    The New York Times bestselling novel by the author of The Interestings and The Female Persuasion that woke up critics, book clubs, and women everywhere. For a group of four Ne...

  • The Mothers synopsis, comments

    The Mothers

    Jennifer Gilmore

    Poignant, raw, and insightful, Jennifer Gilmore’s third novel is an unforgettable story of love, family, and motherhood. With a “voice [that is] at turns wise and barbed with sharp...

  • The Big Time synopsis, comments

    The Big Time

    Rob Childs

    "THIS IS WHERE WE BELONG IN THE BIG TIME!"Andrew and Chris Weston have both been invited to attend a special summer coaching course at one of the country's top football clubs. The...

  • Clever Girl synopsis, comments

    Clever Girl

    Tessa Hadley

    Clever Girl is an indelible story of one woman’s life, unfolded in a series of beautifully sculpted episodes that illuminate an era, moving from the 1960s to today, from one of Bri...

  • The Sixteenth of June synopsis, comments

    The Sixteenth of June

    Maya Lang

    A finely observed debut novel that paints a funny, moving, truthful portrayal of a family at a turning point: “A triumph” (Helen Schulman, New York Times bestselling author of This...

  • The Fall Girl synopsis, comments

    The Fall Girl

    Denise Sewell

    The day Frances Fall steals a baby from outside a shop, is the day her past catches up with her. At the age of thirtysix, Frances is forced to relive a life dominated on one side b...

  • Tuesday Nights in 1980 synopsis, comments

    Tuesday Nights in 1980

    Molly Prentiss

    “An intoxicating Manhattan fairy tale…As affecting as it is absorbing. A thrilling debut.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A vital, sensuous, edgy, and suspenseful tale of longing...

  • Umwege des Lebens synopsis, comments

    Umwege des Lebens

    Jodi Picoult

    Was wäre, wenn wir in entscheidenden Momenten des Lebens eine andere Wahl getroffen hätten?Dawn Edelstein hatte sich einst bei Ausgrabungen in Ägypten in einen Kollegen verliebt, m...

  • The Position synopsis, comments

    The Position

    Meg Wolitzer

    From the bestselling author of The WifeMeg Wolitzer’s “hilariously moving, sharply written novel” (USA TODAY), hailed by critics and loved by readers worldwide, with its “deadon ob...

  • How to Care for a Human Girl synopsis, comments

    How to Care for a Human Girl

    Ashley Wurzbacher

    From “a writer at the top of her game” (The New York Times) comes a bighearted and sharply funny debut novel about two estranged sisters and the crossroads they face after becoming...

  • Der Platz im Leben synopsis, comments

    Der Platz im Leben

    Anna Quindlen

    Ein feinsinniger Roman, der den Neuanfang feiertBis zu jenem Tag, an dem ein brutaler Vorfall die Nachbarschaft erschütterte, glaubte Nora, dass sie glücklicher kaum sein könnte: S...

  • The Antiques synopsis, comments

    The Antiques

    Kris D'Agostino

    A family reunites after the death of its patriarch just as a hurricane tears through town in this “sparklingly funny novel about love, power, money, and adult siblings finding the ...

  • This Is My Life synopsis, comments

    This Is My Life

    Meg Wolitzer

    The early novel that established Meg Wolitzer’s career, later made into Nora Ephron’s first film as a director.The third book by New York Timesbestselling author Meg Wolitzer (orig...

  • People Person synopsis, comments

    People Person

    Candice Carty-Williams

    The author of the “brazenly hilarious, tellitlikeitis first novel” (Oprah Daily) Queenie returns with another witty and insightful “treat” (Jesse Armstrong, creator of Succession) ...

  • Other Times synopsis, comments

    Other Times

    Leslie Thomas

    At the start of the war in 1939 James Bevan is a junior officer approaching middleage, attached to a small antiaircraft unit on the south coast.Abandoned by his wife, the soldiers ...

  • Pretty Bitches synopsis, comments

    Pretty Bitches

    Lizzie Skurnick & Rebecca Traister

    These empowering essays from leading women writers examine the power of the gendered language that is used to diminish women and imagine a more liberated world.Words matter. They ...

  • The Past synopsis, comments

    The Past

    Tessa Hadley

    The “supremely perceptive writer of formidable skill and intelligence (New York Times Book Review) turns her astute eye to a dramatic family reunion, where simmering tensions and s...

  • The Barbizon synopsis, comments

    The Barbizon

    Paulina Bren

    A “captivating portrait” (The Wall Street Journal), both “poignant and intriguing” (The New Republic): from awardwinning author Paulina Bren comes the remarkable history of New Yor...

  • Belzhar synopsis, comments

    Belzhar

    Meg Wolitzer

    “Expect depth and razor sharp wit in this YA novel from the author of The Interestings.” – Entertainment Weekly“A prep school tale with a supernaturalromance touch, from genius adu...

  • To Night Owl From Dogfish synopsis, comments

    To Night Owl From Dogfish

    Holly Goldberg Sloan & Meg Wolitzer

    From two extraordinary authors comes a moving, exuberant, laughoutloud novel about friendship and family, told entirely in emails and letters.Avery Bloom, who's bookish, intense, a...

  • Die Heldin der Geschichte synopsis, comments

    Die Heldin der Geschichte

    Heidi Pitlor

    Die Ghostwriterin Allie bringt sich und ihren Sohn Cass gerade so durch. Von ihrem Idealismus in Bezug auf Mutterschaft und feministische Erziehung musste sie sich längst verabschi...

  • 1000 Words synopsis, comments

    1000 Words

    Jami Attenberg

    A USA TODAY Bestseller A Washington Post Bestseller Inspired by Jami Attenberg’s wildly popular literary movement #1000WordsofSummer, this writer’s guide features encouraging essay...

  • Truth in Advertising synopsis, comments

    Truth in Advertising

    John Kenney

    “F. Scott Fitzgerald said that there are no second acts in American lives. I have no idea what that means but I believe that in quoting him I appear far more intelligent than I am....

  • Starting from Happy synopsis, comments

    Starting from Happy

    Patricia Marx

    While waiting in line for apple pie at a party, Imogene Gilfeather, a lingerie designer who does not understand the reason for romance, meets Wally Yez, a scientist whose business ...

  • The Nakeds synopsis, comments

    The Nakeds

    Lisa Glatt

    A hitandrun accident sends the lives of both driver and victim into unforeseen trajectories in a family drama set against the backdrop of the sexual revolution and 1970s California...

  • Free Love synopsis, comments

    Free Love

    Tessa Hadley

    “Exquisite." Minneapolis Star Tribune "Brilliantly observed.”  People, Pick of the Week“A beguiling novel, deceptively easy to read; beneath the surface swim disturbing ...

  • Sleepwalking synopsis, comments

    Sleepwalking

    Meg Wolitzer

    The debut novel from the New York Times–bestselling author of The Interestings and The Female Persuasion, a story of three college students’ shared fascination with ...

  • Surrender, Dorothy synopsis, comments

    Surrender, Dorothy

    Meg Wolitzer

    From the New York Times bestselling author Meg Wolitzer, a “devastatingly on target” (Elle) novel about a young woman's accidental death and its effect on her family and friends.Fo...