The People We Hate at the Wedding: A Novel

"It’s for the same audience that flocked to The Nest, Where’d You Go, Bernadette? or dare I say a little book you might be a fan of, Crazy Rich Asians."
Kevin Kwan, New York Times bestselling author of Crazy Rich Asians

"Sinfully good."

— Elin Hilderbrand

Entertainment Weekly's Summer Must-Read


A Publishers Weekly BEST SUMMER BOOKS, 2017

New York Post Best Books of Summer

Redbook's 10 Books You Have To Read This Summer

Relationships are awful. They'll kill you, right up to the point where they start saving your life.

Paul and Alice’s half-sister Eloise is getting married! In London! There will be fancy hotels, dinners at “it” restaurants and a reception at a country estate complete with tea lights and embroidered cloth napkins.

They couldn’t hate it more.

The People We Hate at the Wedding is the story of a less than perfect family. Donna, the clan’s mother, is now a widow living in the Chicago suburbs with a penchant for the occasional joint and more than one glass of wine with her best friend while watching House Hunters International. Alice is in her thirties, single, smart, beautiful, stuck in a dead-end job where she is mired in a rather predictable, though enjoyable, affair with her married boss. Her brother Paul lives in Philadelphia with his older, handsomer, tenured track professor boyfriend who’s recently been saying things like “monogamy is an oppressive heteronormative construct,” while eyeing undergrads. And then there’s Eloise. Perfect, gorgeous, cultured Eloise. The product of Donna’s first marriage to a dashing Frenchman, Eloise has spent her school years at the best private boarding schools, her winter holidays in St. John and a post-college life cushioned by a fat, endless trust fund. To top it off, she’s infuriatingly kind and decent.

As this estranged clan gathers together, and Eloise's walk down the aisle approaches, Grant Ginder brings to vivid, hilarious life the power of family, and the complicated ways we hate the ones we love the most in the most bitingly funny, slyly witty and surprisingly tender novel you’ll read this year.

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Published Jun 6, 2017

336 pages

Average rating: 4.71

7 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Dew
Jul 16, 2023
5/10 stars
So this book could be so slow, it could also be laugh out loud funny. So many ridiculous quotes, I loved. I had seen the movie and then realized it was a book so had to read it. The book is definitely more involved and has more backstory and understanding of family dynamics. The film take it in a different direction to a degree, which is why I think the book is better as usual. Not the best book, definitely not the worst. I trudged along and felt compelled to finish and in the end am glad I did.

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