Read by Eva Kaminsky

What if the only way you could get out of your marriage was to become the perfect husband? Nick and Maya Wakefield's relationship has been in crisis since Maya left her high-powered legal career to stay home with their now 3-year-old twins. Today she feels invisible, anxious, and under-appreciated, and Nick has checked out of family life. Sex is a distant memory and the love is gone. A workaholic and a consummate flirt, Nick has decided he wants out. But he balks when their old friend, a divorce attorney, shows him that as sole breadwinner, he stands to lose the most. Together, he and his friend hatch a plan: Nick will act like an ideal husband and father in order to ease the pain of leaving and make out better in court. So he encourages Maya to go back to work, spends time with the kids, and even takes her on a vacation without them. But with his cynical ruse comes a surprising change of heart. Nick is astonished to find his actual emotions match his act and now his marriage is truly on the mend. That is, until Maya finds out, and Nick's world falls to pieces. Now his only hope of saving his family is to prove to his wife that he really is the man he was pretending to be. A Better Man is a sharply observant novel of the pitfalls of marriage and success, and how one couple must lose it all before they can hope to find their way back. Leah McLaren is a novelist, journalist, longtime columnist for Canada's national newspaper, the Globe and Mail, and the Europe correspondent for Maclean's magazine. In 2013, she won a gold National Magazine Award in the long features category. Her first novel, The Continuity Girl, was published by GCP in 2007. She lives in Toronto and London, England, where she shares a home with her husband and two boys. "Supremely entertaining, perceptive, and laugh-out-loud funny, A Better Man is certainly one of the year's best novels. Leah McLaren's book is a tender, true and pitch-perfect portrait of contemporary love, marriage and parenthood, and the complex and uncertain definition of what it means to be 'happy.'"-Julia Fierro, author of Cutting Teeth "Leah McLaren's A Better Man is ruthless and heartwarming by turns, filled with characters who refuse to conform to expectations. McLaren digs into the disorienting, hilarious, and sometimes flat-out absurd negotiations of modern relationships and identities with a sharp eye and a sharper wit."- Grace O'Connell, award-winning author of Magnified World "In this engrossing new novel, Leah McLaren deftly balances humour and pathos to weave a touching, entertaining portrait of a marriage in crisis. A great read!"-Terry Fallis, bestselling author of No Relation "Inside every couple's marriage is a secret known only to them. One of the many pleasures of Leah McLaren's novel is the way she opens a window onto that secret, with great heart and wit. Wince in recognition then laugh out loud, just like life."-Elizabeth Renzetti, author of Based on a True Story "Witty. . . . McLaren's writing is crisp and her characters are surprisingly fresh, resulting in a novel that celebrates breaking away from the expected."-Publishers Weekly "Savvy, insightful, and hysterically funny. I absolutely loved it."-Lauren Weisberger "Leah McLaren is a wit for the ages."-Toby Young, author of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

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