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Iris
Not yet published
Expected 2 Feb 27From the award-winning author of Chemistry and Rental House, a sharp and perceptive novel about two artists who wonder if their instant and electric connection is romantic, platonic, creative, destructive, or even remotely sustainable
Widely celebrated as a pitch-perfect chronicler of life’s most intricate relationships, Weike Wang brings her uniquely wry wit and tender observations to the “will they or won’t they” dynamic between two new friends, a semi-romance that will have a surprising impact on one woman’s creative life.
When Iris and Bowen meet at an artists’ residency, the connection is immediate. Both are married to other people, but their long, riveting debates and stolen moments make Iris, an author struggling with writer’s block, feel newly alive. After they return to their lives in New York City, their spiky repartee continues with impassioned debates about books, reflections on a shared Chinese-American heritage, and confessions of mutual attraction. When the ticking time bomb of a possible affair becomes impossible to ignore, they meet up for an epic, day-long date that will decide their future.
A novel that is, like its heroine, alert to the powers of language and literature, Iris is the whip-smart, emotionally incisive story of a woman buffeted by family judgment, personal desire, and romantic ideals as she navigates her choices, untangling her ideas about love, art, and partnership. The guidance that she finds in the lives and works of her artistic heroes may be what finally allows her to confront her rockiest relationship of the one she has with herself.
Widely celebrated as a pitch-perfect chronicler of life’s most intricate relationships, Weike Wang brings her uniquely wry wit and tender observations to the “will they or won’t they” dynamic between two new friends, a semi-romance that will have a surprising impact on one woman’s creative life.
When Iris and Bowen meet at an artists’ residency, the connection is immediate. Both are married to other people, but their long, riveting debates and stolen moments make Iris, an author struggling with writer’s block, feel newly alive. After they return to their lives in New York City, their spiky repartee continues with impassioned debates about books, reflections on a shared Chinese-American heritage, and confessions of mutual attraction. When the ticking time bomb of a possible affair becomes impossible to ignore, they meet up for an epic, day-long date that will decide their future.
A novel that is, like its heroine, alert to the powers of language and literature, Iris is the whip-smart, emotionally incisive story of a woman buffeted by family judgment, personal desire, and romantic ideals as she navigates her choices, untangling her ideas about love, art, and partnership. The guidance that she finds in the lives and works of her artistic heroes may be what finally allows her to confront her rockiest relationship of the one she has with herself.
224 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication February 2, 2027
About the author
Weike Wang
12 books1,462 followersWeike Wang is a graduate of Harvard University, where she earned her undergraduate degree in chemistry and her doctorate in public health. She received her MFA from Boston University. Her fiction has been published in or is forthcoming from Alaska Quarterly Review, Glimmer Train, The Journal, Ploughshares, Redivider, and SmokeLong Quarterly.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Whew. Weike Wang really writes the internal struggles of a woman, exceptionally well. Here, Iris, is in a will she or won’t she in having an affair with a man she instantly connects with at a writing retreat. And the tension just builds as she struggles with writer’s block and the familiarity of family and life. This short novel packs a steady but constant emotional punch.
I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.
I received an arc from the publisher but all opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The extramarital affair always lays open the interstitial space between the romantic and the realist. In this there is a no-man's-land of despair. Or the despair of having no country to call home. You might call it the chiasmus of life where reality is turned on its head, but in either form of speech it forms the great conundrum or irony that charges us with energy (and many words) in the first case, while in the second afflicts us with ennui of spirit.
The thing about it that's germane to Iris (the character who's suffering writer's block, marital boredom, and a complete loss of her sense of place both as a writer and a wife) is that her despair is the very thing that opens a path to the vastness of her heart.
But that isn't what I found to be most worthy of my interest as a reader/writer. What I see here is that someone has done what I thought was impossible: to actually recreate that no-man's-land of the extramarital affair and make it live on paper in a way, I think, that will open up that world so that it may be experienced by someone who has never lived it, as Remarque did when he wrote of the war of the trenches. Yes, there were certainly people who read it and remembered; but there were a lot more who could not have known of it, but who read it and felt it and heard it and saw it only in the book...probably quite enough to get the point. Which is the futility of it.
How do you write the affair? That's been tried and tried again. But has anyone yet written it from inside the space between its polar opposites--from that space between rapture and wreckage? Weike Wang seems to have done that. She gets five stars for that all by itself.
I'd give her one more star for all her literary references that bend my brain into knots. William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Graham Greene, Flaubert; and for sentences like, "Trees with roots like piano hands." I wish I had written that one! Speaking of which, throw in another star for her musical references. James Michener would love this book!
Okay. So let's calm down. This won't be an easy read for most. Call it The Yellow Wallpaper on steroids. Psychologists will analyze Iris, or will yearn to have patients like her. This is the kind of writing writers do at six-week writing conferences, where, apparently, they meet up for affairs and drink a lot of wine, which is why I would never attend one. It's the kind of writing that invokes interest from a purely literary perspective...until you wade into it and press on and press on and press on; then you begin to understand how utterly rich is the writing and what this thing is you're reading and just how difficult the experience is to put between two covers of a book.
Nevertheless, it didn't really bring me any readerly pleasure. I don't think The Yellow Wallpaper brought me any pleasure, although writers find it interesting just like artists (and connoisseurs) can stand all day and stare at Guernica drinking wine. I don't recommend drinking wine or smoking anything while writing or not. But if you're reading this book, it might help to have at least some residual effect from the drug of extramarital love. Yes, if you had fought in a trench you'd really love Remarque; and if you once suffered the ennui of a less-than-fresh marriage (coupled with the depression that follows a miscarriage), and then with meeting someone somewhere and walking with them in Central Park to find yourself wanting to step in all the puddles, then I'll just bet you'll love Weike Wang.
You might say seven stars is overly generous to go all those words that stream through the labyrinth of Iris's mind without pleasure; but what would you pay Remarque for bringing your heart to a place of truth and reconning by way of earthen corridors of mud?
The thing about it that's germane to Iris (the character who's suffering writer's block, marital boredom, and a complete loss of her sense of place both as a writer and a wife) is that her despair is the very thing that opens a path to the vastness of her heart.
But that isn't what I found to be most worthy of my interest as a reader/writer. What I see here is that someone has done what I thought was impossible: to actually recreate that no-man's-land of the extramarital affair and make it live on paper in a way, I think, that will open up that world so that it may be experienced by someone who has never lived it, as Remarque did when he wrote of the war of the trenches. Yes, there were certainly people who read it and remembered; but there were a lot more who could not have known of it, but who read it and felt it and heard it and saw it only in the book...probably quite enough to get the point. Which is the futility of it.
How do you write the affair? That's been tried and tried again. But has anyone yet written it from inside the space between its polar opposites--from that space between rapture and wreckage? Weike Wang seems to have done that. She gets five stars for that all by itself.
I'd give her one more star for all her literary references that bend my brain into knots. William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, Graham Greene, Flaubert; and for sentences like, "Trees with roots like piano hands." I wish I had written that one! Speaking of which, throw in another star for her musical references. James Michener would love this book!
Okay. So let's calm down. This won't be an easy read for most. Call it The Yellow Wallpaper on steroids. Psychologists will analyze Iris, or will yearn to have patients like her. This is the kind of writing writers do at six-week writing conferences, where, apparently, they meet up for affairs and drink a lot of wine, which is why I would never attend one. It's the kind of writing that invokes interest from a purely literary perspective...until you wade into it and press on and press on and press on; then you begin to understand how utterly rich is the writing and what this thing is you're reading and just how difficult the experience is to put between two covers of a book.
Nevertheless, it didn't really bring me any readerly pleasure. I don't think The Yellow Wallpaper brought me any pleasure, although writers find it interesting just like artists (and connoisseurs) can stand all day and stare at Guernica drinking wine. I don't recommend drinking wine or smoking anything while writing or not. But if you're reading this book, it might help to have at least some residual effect from the drug of extramarital love. Yes, if you had fought in a trench you'd really love Remarque; and if you once suffered the ennui of a less-than-fresh marriage (coupled with the depression that follows a miscarriage), and then with meeting someone somewhere and walking with them in Central Park to find yourself wanting to step in all the puddles, then I'll just bet you'll love Weike Wang.
You might say seven stars is overly generous to go all those words that stream through the labyrinth of Iris's mind without pleasure; but what would you pay Remarque for bringing your heart to a place of truth and reconning by way of earthen corridors of mud?
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
In 'Iris', Weike Wang explores what happens when Iris goes to a writer's retreat and develops an immediate attraction to Bowen. She's a married woman whose marriage has deteriorated into boredom and comfortability. This attraction might be her chance at the kind of passion she's read about in novels. She sees Bowen as a way of regaining pleasure and excitement that she's lost as a writer and a wife. She often sees herself as a heroine in her own story and wants a more heroine-friendly life. Wang crafts this novel in such a way that it's not just about the relationship between the two characters. It's also about how literature and writing impact how we create versions of ourselves in our heads and for the people around us.
Iris loves the written language and she constantly refers to pieces of literature and how other writers describe romance. In one passage, she talks about Graham Greene and the novel 'The End of the Affair' and how it has a biographical relationship to Greene's adulterous affairs. This section is rather droll as Iris explains the background to Greene's creation of that novel. Iris sees herself as someone separate from her own body and there are repeated references to her body and eating. I think building another identity for herself makes it easier for her to handle parts of her life.
She sees herself as Poppy and it's through Poppy that she can be free from criticism, responsibility and consequences that would come from having the affair with Bowen. She wants to be two women. She wants to be the safe wife with her husband and she wants to be the dangerous woman who can text her lover right in front of her husband. She wants to be the woman who meets secretly with her lover because there's a frisson of excitement that comes with this new situation. Weike Wang is so clever about showing how Iris is constantly positioning herself as a romantic heroine. Iris even references 'Anna Karenina' and 'Madame Bovary' within the novel.
Wang is extremely witty and there are several points within the novel where I was highly amused by Wang's ability to have Iris utter the perfect quip about Iris's predicament. She also does an excellent job at illustrating the push-pull relationship between Iris and her sister June. June has decided to marry and have two children. Mothers of children often are very critical of their siblings or relatives who do not have children and June is no exception. Their uncomfortable friction is preserved in this novel. I can imagine the ending might be a bit worrisome for some readers, but I found it intoxicating because it follows Iris's thought patterns throughout the novel. She's constantly whipping up different scenarios and ways of behaving as if she's her own fictional character. I like the way Weike Wang stayed true to her character's instincts.
The ending felt complete because it rang true to Iris's actions. Wang mines a common subject—adultery—for an immense amount of humour and pathos. I was moved by how Iris feels lost and trapped and yet somehow she's also comforted by the life she leads. There's a certain ease in relentless predictability. Weike Wang's 'Iris' is about what happens when Iris the writer attempts to have two lives side by side: one with her secret lover and one as the wife in a comfortable marriage with a rich husband. She learns life is never that simple or uncomplicated.
Iris loves the written language and she constantly refers to pieces of literature and how other writers describe romance. In one passage, she talks about Graham Greene and the novel 'The End of the Affair' and how it has a biographical relationship to Greene's adulterous affairs. This section is rather droll as Iris explains the background to Greene's creation of that novel. Iris sees herself as someone separate from her own body and there are repeated references to her body and eating. I think building another identity for herself makes it easier for her to handle parts of her life.
She sees herself as Poppy and it's through Poppy that she can be free from criticism, responsibility and consequences that would come from having the affair with Bowen. She wants to be two women. She wants to be the safe wife with her husband and she wants to be the dangerous woman who can text her lover right in front of her husband. She wants to be the woman who meets secretly with her lover because there's a frisson of excitement that comes with this new situation. Weike Wang is so clever about showing how Iris is constantly positioning herself as a romantic heroine. Iris even references 'Anna Karenina' and 'Madame Bovary' within the novel.
Wang is extremely witty and there are several points within the novel where I was highly amused by Wang's ability to have Iris utter the perfect quip about Iris's predicament. She also does an excellent job at illustrating the push-pull relationship between Iris and her sister June. June has decided to marry and have two children. Mothers of children often are very critical of their siblings or relatives who do not have children and June is no exception. Their uncomfortable friction is preserved in this novel. I can imagine the ending might be a bit worrisome for some readers, but I found it intoxicating because it follows Iris's thought patterns throughout the novel. She's constantly whipping up different scenarios and ways of behaving as if she's her own fictional character. I like the way Weike Wang stayed true to her character's instincts.
The ending felt complete because it rang true to Iris's actions. Wang mines a common subject—adultery—for an immense amount of humour and pathos. I was moved by how Iris feels lost and trapped and yet somehow she's also comforted by the life she leads. There's a certain ease in relentless predictability. Weike Wang's 'Iris' is about what happens when Iris the writer attempts to have two lives side by side: one with her secret lover and one as the wife in a comfortable marriage with a rich husband. She learns life is never that simple or uncomplicated.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I’ve read a couple of Weike Wang’s novels (‘Chemistry’ and ‘Rental House’), and I love her sharp style and dry sense of humour, so I was thrilled to see a new novel from her.
‘Iris’ didn’t disappoint. The writing is excellent, and the quips are perfection: the kind that make you laugh, then pause for a moment to admire them. I loved the literary references and wordplay, too. This is very much a novel for literature lovers, and one that rewards slow reading and revisiting. I’m already looking forward to reading it again.
I also appreciated the depth with which Wang depicts Iris herself. The feeling of being stuck, particularly in midlife, is something many people will recognise, and Wang captures it with authenticity. Her treatment of an affair struck me as particularly nuanced and realistic, too. Rather than romanticising it or concentrating on the physical aspect, she explores its emotional complications and the way they play out in the mundane realities of everyday life. I found this a refreshing and perceptive approach.
Many thanks to NetGalley, Weike Wang, and Juniper for the ARC.
⚠️ Infidelity, eating disorder, miscarriage, infertility
‘Iris’ didn’t disappoint. The writing is excellent, and the quips are perfection: the kind that make you laugh, then pause for a moment to admire them. I loved the literary references and wordplay, too. This is very much a novel for literature lovers, and one that rewards slow reading and revisiting. I’m already looking forward to reading it again.
I also appreciated the depth with which Wang depicts Iris herself. The feeling of being stuck, particularly in midlife, is something many people will recognise, and Wang captures it with authenticity. Her treatment of an affair struck me as particularly nuanced and realistic, too. Rather than romanticising it or concentrating on the physical aspect, she explores its emotional complications and the way they play out in the mundane realities of everyday life. I found this a refreshing and perceptive approach.
Many thanks to NetGalley, Weike Wang, and Juniper for the ARC.
⚠️ Infidelity, eating disorder, miscarriage, infertility
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Iris by Weike Wang is the story of a relationship, of Iris and Bowen, who meet at a writers residence, both married to others, but who find a common connection and share debates on literature, shared Chinese-American heritage and a mutual attraction they can barely act on. As the story returns them to their daily lives after the intesity of the writers residence, these two could-be lovers have to work out what truly matters to each other.
Iris is a very tender novel, full of literary references - if you've not read many of the classic romantic novels and don't like spoilers then Iris may ruin a few for you - and is utterly charming and unique. I was fully invested in this friendship/relationship, and loved their back and forth debates. There is a lot to love here - and it's brevity meant I could devour it in one sitting - and left moved by novels end.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.
Iris is a very tender novel, full of literary references - if you've not read many of the classic romantic novels and don't like spoilers then Iris may ruin a few for you - and is utterly charming and unique. I was fully invested in this friendship/relationship, and loved their back and forth debates. There is a lot to love here - and it's brevity meant I could devour it in one sitting - and left moved by novels end.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.
October 27, 2026
I read my first Weike Wang book last year and was instantly drawn in by her ability to imbue so much emotion with such precise, straightforward prose. Her writing is accessible, but no less meaningful or impactful. That's a long-winded, non-Weike way of saying she conveys a lot with fewer words.
Fans of her other novels will not be disappointed. While this book presents realistic characters in realistic scenarios, the protagonist can't help but compare her circumstances to plots in various classic novels. She also compares her experiences to the lives of the authors who wrote those very stories.
Iris attends a five-week artist's residency, where she's unable and unwilling to write a single word. Instead, she spends much of her time with a translator named Bowen. They engage in intellectual debates about literature and language and reflect on their shared Chinese-American heritage.
They return home to their spouses but maintain constant communication, essentially diving headfirst into an emotional affair. Iris' midlife crisis has her questioning whether her connection with Bowen is the real thing or just an opportunity to escape her own discontent.
Fans of her other novels will not be disappointed. While this book presents realistic characters in realistic scenarios, the protagonist can't help but compare her circumstances to plots in various classic novels. She also compares her experiences to the lives of the authors who wrote those very stories.
Iris attends a five-week artist's residency, where she's unable and unwilling to write a single word. Instead, she spends much of her time with a translator named Bowen. They engage in intellectual debates about literature and language and reflect on their shared Chinese-American heritage.
They return home to their spouses but maintain constant communication, essentially diving headfirst into an emotional affair. Iris' midlife crisis has her questioning whether her connection with Bowen is the real thing or just an opportunity to escape her own discontent.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
★★★★½ (4.5) A beautifully readable slice of life
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the early copy.
Weike Wang's writing is so immensely readable for me. It just flows along beautifully, and I never wanted to put it down.
Iris is a great slice of life, and I think it will be relatable for many of us in mid-life. It explores the idea that someone could come along and shift our attention from the life we have to the idea of what life could be like with someone else. It's a quiet question, and the book handles it with honesty and care.
A smart, absorbing read that stayed with me after I finished.
Highly recommended for readers who love character-driven stories and prose that goes down easy.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the early copy.
Weike Wang's writing is so immensely readable for me. It just flows along beautifully, and I never wanted to put it down.
Iris is a great slice of life, and I think it will be relatable for many of us in mid-life. It explores the idea that someone could come along and shift our attention from the life we have to the idea of what life could be like with someone else. It's a quiet question, and the book handles it with honesty and care.
A smart, absorbing read that stayed with me after I finished.
Highly recommended for readers who love character-driven stories and prose that goes down easy.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thanks to Netgalley and Riverhead Books for the ebook. Iris and Bowen meet at an artist’s retreat. He’s doing a translation, she’s trying to break through her writer’s block and come up with a long awaited second novel. An affair seems inevitable but somehow doesn’t happen. They head back to New York and to their spouses, but the texts and emails and eventually calls become a daily occurrence. The eventually decide to meet and spend the day together to see what this relationship is and to see if it really does have a life of its own. The author has a light touch for both simple and complex emotions.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
In this book, Weike Wang brings her sharp and weird perspective to a possible affair. She just has this talent to twist and entertain while writing about mundane work, vacations, family expectations, or marriages.
For fans of reasonably unlikable characters.
Readalikes: Sigrid Nunez, Jenny Offill.
Out Feb. 2nd, 2027. A received a free ARC from RPH via NetGally.
For fans of reasonably unlikable characters.
Readalikes: Sigrid Nunez, Jenny Offill.
Out Feb. 2nd, 2027. A received a free ARC from RPH via NetGally.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
New author for me. Really liked this one (once I got past the trophy wife and over-the-top wealth). Especially liked the literary references. I'll be looking for some of her earlier titles. Happy to have found her. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.
Want to Read
August 5, 2026the blurb kinda sorta reminds me of Past Lives so trust that i will be reading this expeditiously when it comes out
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