Dad to Essbaum: “Why don’t you write me a trashy book and make us all rich?”

Photo by Megan Sembera Peters

Jill Alexander Essbaum’s father (a fan of Sidney Sheldon and Harold Robbins) used to tease her: “Why don’t you write me a trashy book and make us all rich?” (Bridgette Bates, The Wall Street Journal, 3/19/15)

Ms. Essbaum apparently thinks Father Knows Best: her debut novel, Hausfrau, is indeed a trashy book (in the best sense of that word, of course) and will most probably make her rich.

Booksellers are taking note. Barnes & Noble, Amazon, IndieBound and Indigo and Chapters stores in Canada have all spotlighted the novel. Random House, which is touting it as a literary ‘50 Shades of Grey,’ has sold rights in 14 international markets and ordered a third printing before the publication date – unusual for a debut novel. (Anna Russell, The Wall Street Journal, 3/12/15)

Hausfrau is a retelling of Madame Bovary (Essbaum calls it an ‘homage’), interspersed with Jungian tropes from the Hausfrau’s