I Married You for Happiness

A “captivating” portrait of a long marriage and a meditation on how chance can affect life from the National Book Award winner (The Washington Post).   “His hand is growing cold, still she holds it” is how this novel that contemplates love, after a husband’s sudden death, begins.   This riveting and deeply moving story unfolds over a single night, as Nina, numb with grief, sits at the bedside of her husband, Philip, whose unexpected death is the reason for her lonely vigil. There, she recalls the defining moments of their forty-three-year-long union, beginning with their meeting in Paris. She is an artist, he a mathematician—a collision of two different worlds that merged to form an intricate and passionate love.   As Nina revisits select memories—real and imagined—Lily Tuck reveals the intimacies, dark secrets, and overwhelming joys that shaped the couple’s life together.