The Wife App

April 24, 2023
In Mackler’s upbeat adult debut (after the middle grade novel Not if I Can Help It), three best friends monetize the domestic work done by wives and mothers. Lauren Zuckerman files for divorce after she finds out her husband, Eric, is visiting sex workers, while her divorced friend, Sophie Smart, has long moved on from her deadbeat ex, Joshua. Both men have landed on their feet—Eric is now dating the babysitter, and Joshua’s new wife is documenting their lives with glossy Instagram posts. Lauren and Sophie, meanwhile, struggle to make ends meet and still perform the lion’s share of parenting, and their friend Madeline Wallace, who is independently wealthy, contends with her ex’s attempt to gain custody of their children. Fed up, the women create an app to “right marital inequalities” that will allow users to pay for services that often fall to mothers. As the app picks up steam, the women fend off their meddling exes and seek to define themselves as independent women. While the writing is at times didactic (“what if marriage actually started this way, with frank conversations about division of labor,” Madeline wonders), Mackler identifies many real, often unspoken problems inherent in domesticity. This is worth a look. Agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House.