MARIE RUTKOSKI is New York Times bestselling author of books for children and young adults, including The Shadow Society and the Kronos Chronicles, which includes The Cabinet of Wonders. She published her first novel for adults, Real Easy, in 2022. Rutkoski is a professor of English literature at Brooklyn College and lives in Brooklyn with her family.

"This novel is remarkable and profoundly moving. A beautifully written, intelligent, quietly hopeful story about being lost and found."
--Emily St. John Mandel, New York Times best-selling author of Sea of Tranquility

"This is an almost unbearably beautiful love story. Emily and Gen feel completely real: on the rare occasion I managed to put this book down, I thought about them constantly. It broke my heart to let them go when I turned the final page. Ordinary Love is extraordinary."
--Emilia Hart, New York Times bestselling author of Weyward

"I loved this novel. I didn't want to stop reading it for anything. Ordinary Love is a riveting portrait of a woman taking control of her life. A brilliant examination of queerness, friendship, motherhood, longing and ambition. It's funny and moving and sexy. Above all, it's a stunning love story."
--J. Courtney Sullivan, bestselling author of The Cliffs

"Ordinary Love is evocative and emotional, surprising and propulsive, the whole of it brimming with tenderness. Rutkowski's prose is poetic and sharp, writing to be savored. Perhaps most unforgettable is the chemistry between Emily and Gen, which crackles and explodes on the page."
--Carola Lovering, bestselling author of Tell Me Lies and Bye, Baby

"A sweeping tale. Tender, truthful and gorgeously written, I devoured it in a few days."
--Samuel Burr, bestselling author of The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers

"Ordinary Love sparkles with the excitement, danger and wonder of love in all its forms."
--Sophie Ward, Booker Prize longlisted author of The Schoolhouse

"I stayed up way too late to finish this beautifully written novel, which had me hooked from the first page. A truthful, hopeful look at navigating family, life and love."
--Jennie Godfrey, Sunday Times bestselling author of The List of Suspicious Things

"I raced through this immersive, insightful novel about love, family, duty, desire and the impossibility of perfectly inhabiting any given role."
--Lisa Owens, author of Not Working

"A raw and moving second-chance love story that tenderly tracks a woman's determined efforts to regain self-worth as she heals from an abusive marriage and reunites with a past love.... Rutkoski tracks their slow rekindling in stunning prose that skillfully weaves past and present. The result is a brutal yet beautiful story that captures what it means to genuinely support, cherish, and love another person."
--Publishers Weekly

"Tender and finely written. The women's love for one another...is central, but Emily's journey to rescue her autonomy and creativity, and protect her children, is just as stirring. This...novel burns slow, drawing the reader deep into the protagonist's interiority and through the emotional turbulence that shakes Emily's most important relationships.... By the end, readers will feel they know Emily and Gen backward and forward, and they will almost certainly miss spending time with them. A sexy, bittersweet novel with characters that peel off the page."
--Kirkus

Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group

Pub date: 2025-06-10

Length: 368 pages