New Delhi, December 2019– Penguin Random House India announces the acquisition of The Start Up Wife by award winning writer Tahmima Anam. Canongate in the UK and Scribner in the US will publish the book simultaneously. In India, it will be published under the Hamish Hamilton imprint, home to some of the most distinguished titles in literary fiction. The Start Up Wife will be released in the spring of 2021.
When high school sweethearts Asha Ray and Cyrus Jones build an algorithm to replace religion, they have no idea they will someday be running WAI, one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. As WAI grows in numbers and influence, their marriage is tested as Asha finds herself increasingly in Cyrus’s shadow. In the meantime, Asha builds a community of female founders among her eccentric officemates at Utopia, the New York incubator where WAI is being developed.
THE STARTUP WIFE takes a sharp, satirical look at marriage, work, and female friendship in the age of peak technology.
Tahmima Anam is an award-winning novelist, short story writer (winner of an O Henry Prize and featured in Best American Short Stories) and Harvard-educated Anthropologist. Her work has been published in Granta, The New York Times, and The Guardian. She is also on the board of ROLI, a music technology startup with offices in New York and London.
Commenting on her upcoming book, the author Tahmima Anam says, ‘This is the feminist rom-com I’ve been waiting my whole life to write – a story about love, invention, and feminist geekdom. I’m thrilled to be reuniting with Meru Gokhale and Penguin Random House for its publication.’
Meru Gokhale, Publisher of Penguin Press, Penguin Random House India, says, ‘‘Tahmima is one of the most energetic writers out there and I am so delighted that we are working together again after her stunning Bengal Trilogy.’