Banner image caption: two women sits at desks sit by side. They look glum.

The Mistakes Madeline Made by Elizabeth Meriwether

Edna has stopped bathing. She has soap and water, but for now, the ghost of her brother is soaking in the tub and she’d like it to stay that way.

After the tragic death of her war-correspondent brother, the once cheerful Edna finds herself alienated from her parents and previous life and working in a basement office catering to the trivially absurd needs of a wealthy Manhattan family. At the beck and call of her tightly wound boss Beth and in between buying sneakers, “backup” sneakers and toothpaste, Edna begins to fall apart. Haunted by the memory of her brother’s last visit, Edna stops bathing, develops a violent apathy for her work and pathologically seeks out loser writers for a series of one night stands in an attempt to fuck her brother back to life.

From the creator of TV’s New Girl comes a dark tale of love, loss and menial office work.