I Want You To Be Happy by Jem Calder

Published  21st May 2026.
 
BookBar says: I Want You To Be Happy reminded me of why everyone went wild for Normal People, with the spare and emotionally observant writing style, but the relationship dynamic of Cleopatra and Frankenstein, the North East London-y vibes of Evenings and Weekends, and even the wry, knowing social observance of Vincenzo Latronico's Perfection. Chuck reminded me at times of Dolly Alderton's narrator in Good Material, but despite all these comparisons, it never felt generic or exhausted, the writing stands out as being so sharp. We promise you'll feel all the feels.

'An extraordinarily gifted writer.' Sally Rooney
'A superb writer, by turns funny, graceful, acidly cynical, lyrical.' Guardian
'Jem Calder is my new favourite writer.' Andrew O'Hagan
'Calder's writing achieves that rare thing of capturing how it feels to be young.' Esquire
 
Chuck and Joey meet in a bar. He's in his mid-thirties; she's twelve years younger. He's long abandoned his ambition of becoming a novelist and now works as a copywriter at a big ad agency.'Lead copywriter,' he corrects himself. Joey lives paycheck to paycheck on her barista wages and privately dreams of making it as a poet. They go back to Chuck's luxury flat-a world away from Joey's cramped house-share, the crumbs in her bed.Soon, Joey's imagining a future between them, and Chuck's moving on from a major change in his recent past. Amazing, how meeting a new person can make you feel so new. Funny, excruciating, and true, I Want You to Be Happy is a sharp-eyed tale of two people searching for meaning and connection in modern times, missing the mark maybe, but trying.