Listen free for 30 days

  • The Crane Wife

  • A Memoir in Essays
  • Written by: CJ Hauser
  • Narrated by: CJ Hauser
  • Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
The Crane Wife cover art

The Crane Wife

Written by: CJ Hauser
Narrated by: CJ Hauser
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $23.31

Buy Now for $23.31

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

A memoir in essays that expands on the viral sensation “The Crane Wife” with a frank and funny look at love, intimacy, and self in the twenty-first century. From friends and lovers to blood family and chosen family, this “elegant masterpiece” (Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author of Hunger) asks what more expansive definitions of love might offer ​us all.

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: TIME, THE GUARDIAN, GARDEN & GUN

"Hauser builds their life's inventory out of deconstructed personal narratives, resulting in a reading experience that's rich like a complicated dessert—not for wolfing down but for savoring in small bites."—The New York Times

Clever, heartfelt, and wrenching.”—Time

“Brilliant.”—Oprah Daily

Ten days after calling off their wedding, CJ Hauser went on an expedition to Texas to study the whooping crane. After a week wading through the gulf, they realized they'd almost signed up to live someone else's life.  

What if you released yourself from traditional narratives of happiness? What if you looked for ways to leave room for the unexpected? In Hauser’s case, this meant dissecting pop culture touchstone, from The Philadelphia Story to The X Files, to learn how not to lose yourself in a relationship. They attended a robot convention, contemplated grief at John Belushi’s gravesite, and officiated a wedding. Most importantly, they mapped the difference between the stories we’re asked to hold versus those we choose to carry. 

Told with the late-night barstool directness of your wisest, most bighearted friend, The Crane Wife is a book for everyone whose path doesn't look the way they thought it would; for everyone learning to find joy in the not-knowing and to build a new sort of life story, a new sort of family, a new sort of home to live in.

©2022 CJ Hauser (P)2022 Random House Audio

What the critics say

A Guardian Best Book of the Year • One of TIME Magazine’s 100 Must-Read Books of the Year • One of Garden & Gun’s Best Southern Books of the Year

A Most Anticipated Book: TIME, Good Morning America, LitHub, BookRiot, The Rumpus, Texas Monthly, The Independent, & more

Lambda Literary Award Finalist

"There's more to this memoir in essays than breakups and so much more to the book than the essay that started it all. An intellectually vigorous and emotionally resonant account of how a self gets created over time, The Crane Wife will satisfy and inspire anyone who has ever asked, 'How did I get here, and what happens now?'...Hauser builds their life's inventory out of deconstructed personal narratives, resulting in a reading experience that's rich like a complicated dessertnot for wolfing down but for savoring in small bites."New York Times, Mary Laura Philpott

“A frank exploration of intimacy and romance that doesn’t always lead to a ‘happily ever after’...Hauser is a playful, energetic and always likable writer...I kept thinking about all of the people in my life into whose hands I can’t wait to put The Crane Wife.”Washington Post

"Hauser...weav[es] together a memoir about redefining love and living life outside of traditional boundaries."—Time

More from the same

What listeners say about The Crane Wife

Average Customer Ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.