I'm Sorry You Feel That Way

I'm Sorry You Feel That Way is told largely from the perspective of Alice, the quieter, more considerate of a pair of twin sisters, alongside her opposite, Hanna — a blonde, extroverted beauty. Their mother has always taken a divide-and-conquer approach to raising them, their father has been essentially absent, and their older brother Michael's disapproval is a constant, looming pressure.

At the center of the novel is a catastrophe from the sisters' past that is never directly named but has shaped every relationship in the family since. As adults, Alice and Hanna each struggle with disappointments in work and love, all while navigating an increasingly fraught set of family dynamics. The novel builds toward the sisters finally confronting how to repair their own relationship — and how to deal, once and for all, with their mother.

Rebecca Wait writes with dark comic precision about the particular pain of not finding your place in a family, about clinging to the people who ease that pain, and about a frighteningly vivid account of a psychological breaking point. The novel was a book of the year pick for The Times, the Guardian, and Good Housekeeping, and was shortlisted for the Nota Bene Prize.