Amicable (A Novel)

She swore her divorce would be different, but when things turn ugly, Lea must lean into the fight, in this absorbing debut from a New York Times editor.

Lea’s always believed that how you end a marriage says as much about you as how you begin one. So when she decides to leave her husband, Veer—the father of her two children and the man whose crypto fortune she helped build—she commits to doing it right. Civilly. Maturely. Without repeating her parents’ mistakes.

But Veer sees things differently. Convinced that Lea was unfaithful and therefore deserves nothing, he casts himself as the victim. As legal bills skyrocket and the group chat with her friends goes strangely silent, Lea finds herself trapped in the very storm she spent her childhood running from: someone else’s anger. The “good divorce” she had hoped for quickly dissolves, and she’s left asking, Was this her destiny? Or worse, her fault?

Perfect for readers of Belle Burden’s Strangers, Amicable is a piercing, tender novel about the myths we tell ourselves when love ends: that we can control the narrative, that our friends will show up, that we can outrun our pasts. With wry wit and deep humanity, Hanna Ingber reveals the quiet truth that we’re all fumbling through the dark, and even those who hurt us deserve some grace.