This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

For fans of American Housewife and the work of Lily King, a provocative, razor-sharp, and riotously entertaining story collection exploring the dark side of family and femininity. CONTAINS “COMORBIDITIES,” WINNER OF THE BBC SHORT STORY PRIZE In my life, I had always been a good woman; controlling what it was that I wanted. But recently, I had started to notice my bad energy, and I began to follow it, wondering where it would take me . . . A woman has an unexpected outburst at a corporate therapy session for working mothers. A couple find some long-overdue time to rekindle their relationship and make an ill-advised home movie. A pregnant film director plots revenge on the actress who betrayed her. An ex-wife deliberately causes conflict at her ex-husband’s wedding. This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things illuminates the lives of malicious, subversive, and untamed women. Exploring failed sisterhood, dubious parenting, and the dark side of modern love, this powerful and funny collection exposes how society wants women to behave, and shows what happens when they refuse.

Naomi Wood is the award-winning author of three novels, including the bestselling Mrs. Hemingway. Her stories have been published in the Mid-American Review, Washington Square Review, Joyland, and Stylist, and have been shortlisted for the Manchester Fiction Prize, the London Magazine Short Story Prize, and longlisted for the Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize. “Comorbidities” won the 2023 BBC National Short Story Award. She lives in Norwich with her family and teaches Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.