You're Not You: A Novel

Now available in paperback

College student Bec is self-conscious of her aimless life; she has fallen into an affair with a married professor and a major she has no interest in. In a half-hearted effort to redeem herself, she answers an ad for a caregiver and finds herself employed by Kate, a wealthy, happily married woman with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Their relationship develops into a surprising intimacy, and as she observes the implacable changes in Kate her own life takes shape in ways she didn't anticipate. Vibrant and sensuous, this is a fiercely unsentimental yet poignant novel.

From the Book

Not long after I saw Evan at the farmers market, he called. Kate and I were in the kitchen making a list of people to call for the ALS Society’s phone drive. I still disliked making these calls, and when her telephone rang I was relieved to have a moment’s reprieve before I had to phone strangers and explain myself through a chain of prepositions: My name is Rebecca, and I am calling for Kate Norris on behalf of .... Sometimes I found myself speaking to another caregiver, and with Kate at my side and the other employer on the other end, we two caregivers would carry on a conversation by proxy.

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Praise for You’re Not You

“Wildgen writes with a fresh, appealing honesty and has done a marvelous job of capturing that youthful moment in our lives when we are like sponges ready to soak up someone else’s character, taste and charm, borrowed elements from which we hope to concoct an authentic, individual self.”

—Francine Prose, People Magazine, Critic’s Choice, 4 stars

“...You’re Not You, by the astonishingly gifted debut novelist Michelle Wildgen, is a complex and satisfying dish: a story of intimate strangers and their impact on each other’s lives. What makes this novel so enticing is the smartly self-mocking young narrator, Bec, and the lovely, unlucky Kate.”

—Cathleen Medwick, O Magazine

“Wildgen eschews the cliché, and instead provides us with a psychologically acute and complex tale of a young woman who begins to learns, under emotionally difficult circumstances, who she is and what she wants to be. This is one of those first novels that makes you want to reach out to the writer and say, hurry up and write: I want to read your second novel.”

—Nancy Pearl, Seattle NPR

Food and Booze: A Tin House Literary Feast

Michelle Wildgen, Editor

Food and Booze celebrates seven years of delicious writing culled from Tin House’s “Readable Feast” and “Blithe Spirit” departments. The pieces, contributed by some of the finest fiction and nonfiction writers working today, range from the humorous to the lyrical, recipes to rhapsodies, the historic to the personal, and from humble to haute cuisine. All share one common feature: the superb writing readers have come to expect from the magazine, the only literary journal with its own martini recipe.

Praise for Food and Booze: A Tin House Literary Feast

“a witty and whimsical literary buffet”

—Variety

“This strange, dark, proudly literate collection is a triumph of unapologetic debauchery—after so much prudish, hothouse food writing, Food & Booze is as refreshing as an ice-cold Tin House Martini.”

—Julie Powell, author of Julie & Julia, 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen

Death by Pad Thai: And Other
Unforgettable Meals

Michelle Wildgen, Contributor

Food isn’t just a gustatory pleasure; it is the stuff of life. At its best and most memorable, a meal becomes a story—and a story becomes a feast. In this collection of essays by some of the country’s finest writers, food is the central player in memories both exquisite and excruciating. Steve Almond recounts the gleeful daylong preparation of a transcendent lobster pad thai dish. Sue Miller reveals that after a lifetime of practical cooking, she is finally fed by a man who presents food as an offering, made just for her. Aimee Bender ponders her lifelong envy of what everyone else is having for lunch. Richard Russo relates the celebratory day he and his wife spent eating their way through haute Manhattan—and departing utterly famished.

Expertly compiled and edited by Douglas Bauer—including pieces by Amy Bloom, Peter Mayle, Jane and Michael Stern, Ann Packer, and Andre Dubus III—this unforgettable collection presents food as education, test, reward, bait, magnet, and, most of all, gift. Gathered here are meals that sate our most complex palate, the appreciation of life.