I Want You to Be Happy Audiobook By Jem Calder cover art

I Want You to Be Happy

Pre-order: Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can listen catalog of 150K+ audiobooks and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

I Want You to Be Happy

By: Jem Calder
Narrated by: Christopher Bonwell, Gemma Lawrence
Pre-order: Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Pre-order for $15.84

Pre-order for $15.84

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 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
No reviews yet