Wine People: A Novel

by Michelle Wildgen

Overview

A Time Magazine “25 New Books You Need to Read This Summer”

“A riveting, behind-the-scenes portrait of a high-drama industry, from the chateau to the corner office…pour a glass and dive in.”—Oprah Daily

An intoxicating escape into the cutthroat world of wine and the complicated terrain of women’s friendship.

Wren and Thessaly collide when they land coveted jobs at a glamorous New York City boutique wine importer. Hardworking, by-the-book Wren comes from a modest background and has everything to prove, while Thessaly hails from a family of prestigious California growers—but she is plagued by self-doubt. Thrown together at work, where they’re expected to have exquisite palates, endless tolerance for alcohol and socializing, and the ability to sell, sell, sell, they regard each other with suspicion.

It’s only on an important European business trip—with everything on the line for both of them—that they unexpectedly forge an alliance that will change the course of their careers and personal lives.

With mouth-watering descriptions of food and wine, Wine People takes readers from France, Germany, and Italy to the Midwest and California wine country, in an utterly entertaining page-turner.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798986241852
Publisher:	Zibby Publishing
Publication date:	08/01/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Michelle Wildgen is the author of the novels You're Not You, But Not For Long, and Bread and Butter. She edited the anthology Food and Booze, and her writing has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, O, the Oprah Magazine, and The Best American Food Writing. Formerly executive editor of Tin House, Wildgen is cofounder of the Madison Writers' Studio.

Editorial Reviews

A riveting, behind-the-scenes portrait of a high-drama industry, from the chateau to the corner office…pour a glass and dive in.”
—Oprah Daily

"So intoxicatingly real and so, so smart and moving, Wildgen’s novel plumbs the depths of female friendship through the lives of two indelible characters: outsider Wren and golden girl Thessaly, who both enter the wine business as young women, fiercely bond, and then go into business together. Grappling with who they really were and who they now are meant to be, both together and apart, this is a stunner about ambition, love, and family. Wine connoisseurs, foodies, and literature lovers will be enraptured."
—Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of With or Without You

“Wildgen beautifully captures the shifting feelings and perspectives of a long friendship evolving over time, even as she illuminates a little-known corner of wine culture. An intriguing read!”
—Andrea Barrett, National Book Award-winning author of Ship Fever and Natural History

"An intoxicating story of friendship, workplace politics, entrepreneurship, and, of course, the elixir of the Gods, Wine People is all the wine metaphors and then some. Savor it.”
—Elisa Albert, author of Human Blues

“I blazed through this novel—a complicated, authentic examination of female ambition and friendship that also happens to be such fun to read.”
—Vauhini Vara, author of The Immortal King Rao

“Wine People follows wine professionals Wren and Thessaly as they compete to become the heirs of a retiring New York City importer—but it's just as much about what happens after that. In sharp, sensory prose, Wildgen takes us from Madison, Wisconsin and Sonoma, California to Italy, France, and beyond. In her hands, wine is many things at once: a sometimes-destroyer of relationships, yes, but also an ancient art that bottles time and place. Smart and very funny, satirical but deeply felt, Wine People is an ode to the complexity of working friendships—as well as a shrewd, clear-eyed love letter to wine and the people who make, import, and drink it.”
—Chloe Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Immortalists

From the Publisher

2023-05-24
Wildgen explores the world of wine through the vicissitudes of two women's friendship.

Wren works in operations and Thessaly in sales at the high-end Lionel Garrett Wine Imports. They are wary colleagues. Self-conscious about her working-class Midwestern origins and single-minded in her commitment to the wine business, Wren considers Thessaly, who grew up on a large vineyard in Sonoma, a “golden girl,” while Thessaly sees Wren as “one of those worker-bee types.” Wren envies Thessaly’s apparent confidence, but actually Thessaly’s confidence is shaky, especially concerning her private ambition to create her own wines—and she has a drinking problem. When Lionel announces he will soon be stepping away from the business without naming his successor, his company becomes a hotbed of competition. Much of the book reads like a tame version of the TV drama Succession as Lionel’s erudite, cultured acolytes backbite and undermine each other over sips of Bordeaux. Despite their mutual distrust, Thessaly and Wren end up joining forces to compete as a team in the otherwise mostly White male establishment. Though they don’t get the job, the women bond personally and professionally, Wren helping Thessaly control her drinking, Thessaly improving Wren’s awkward communication skills and calming her anxiety. But when they open their own business, the existing cracks in their friendship widen. Despite her discerning palate, Wren’s ambition lies in growing her distribution business, which means finding and pushing wines that are easier to sell to a wider audience. Although she’s the gifted salesperson, Thessaly’s ambition is more complicated, more idiosyncratic, and less traditional. Therefore she’s also the more interesting character. Although each woman gets a romance, their lives are defined by their relationships to wine. Wildgen’s eagerness to show and tell the ins and outs of winemaking and wine selling, including examples of chicanery but also nobility, is endearing, but she’s mapped out her plot and main characters too obviously to let the narrative breathe.

Likable and mildly informative but lacks punch.

Kirkus Reviews