All's Well - by Mona Awad

About the Book

When an accident ended Miranda Fitch's acting career, she was left with chronic pain, a failed marriage, and a dependence on painkillers. And now she's on the verge of losing her job as a college theater director as well. Determined to put on Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well, the play that promised, and cost, her everything, she faces a mutinous cast hellbent on staging Macbeth instead.

Book Synopsis

From the author of Bunny, which Margaret Atwood hails as "genius," comes a "wild, and exhilarating" (Lauren Groff) novel about a theater professor who is convinced staging Shakespeare's most maligned play will remedy all that ails her--but at what cost?

Miranda Fitch's life is a waking nightmare. The accident that ended her burgeoning acting career left her with excruciating chronic back pain, a failed marriage, and a deepening dependence on painkillers. And now, she's on the verge of losing her job as a college theater director. Determined to put on Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends Well, the play that promised and cost her everything, she faces a mutinous cast hellbent on staging Macbeth instead. Miranda sees her chance at redemption slip through her fingers.

That's when she meets three strange benefactors who have an eerie knowledge of Miranda's past and a tantalizing promise for her future: one where the show goes on, her rebellious students get what's coming to them, and the invisible doubted pain that's kept her from the spotlight is made known.

With prose Margaret Atwood has described as "no punches pulled, no hilarities dodged...genius," Mona Awad has concocted her most potent, subversive novel yet. All's Well is a "fabulous novel" (Mary Karr) about a woman at her breaking point and a formidable, piercingly funny indictment of our collective refusal to witness and believe female pain.

About the Author

Mona Awad is the author of All's Well, Bunny, and 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl. Bunny was a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award and the New England Book Award. It was named a Best Book of 2019 by Time, Vogue and the New York Public Library. It is currently being developed for film by Jenni Konner and New Regency Productions. All's Well was a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award. 13 Ways won the Amazon Best First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize. Awad currently teaches fiction in the creative writing program at Syracuse University. She is based in Boston.