Kindle
$11.99
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Hardcover
$11.44
Paperback
$12.50
Buy new:
$12.50
FREE delivery Friday, May 17 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Ships from: Amazon.com
Sold by: Amazon.com
$12.50
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery Friday, May 17 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery Thursday, May 16. Order within 17 hrs 53 mins
Only 10 left in stock (more on the way).
$$12.50 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$12.50
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day easy returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
$9.99
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
The item is fairly worn but still readable. The book may have some cosmetic wear like creased spine, cover, scratches, curled corners, folded pages, sunburn, stains, water damage, bent, torn, damaged binding, dent. The dust jacket if present, may be marked, and have considerable heavy wear. The book might be ex-library copy, and may have the markings and stickers associated from the library - The book may have considerable highlights, notes, underlined pages but the text is legible The item is fairly worn but still readable. The book may have some cosmetic wear like creased spine, cover, scratches, curled corners, folded pages, sunburn, stains, water damage, bent, torn, damaged binding, dent. The dust jacket if present, may be marked, and have considerable heavy wear. The book might be ex-library copy, and may have the markings and stickers associated from the library - The book may have considerable highlights, notes, underlined pages but the text is legible See less
FREE delivery Saturday, May 18 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
$$12.50 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$12.50
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Katherine Heiny
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Early Morning Riser Paperback – March 8, 2022

by Heiny Katherine (Author)
4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 4,589 ratings
Editors' pick Best Literature & Fiction
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$12.50","priceAmount":12.50,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"12","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"50","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"%2FRiMyA93tTngoE1JH%2FeuBXSDHrAso%2FUh97jyv0UIUbKdDSPINOP61gs2%2BN39xGs2f0uUiglsTyqIVL%2FRhpkbIZLkKdcNJiu5ErJRwigq2Myz%2BEjxn4wHD8G2RqAyHj0CzwG63GEXOwNsnfFNOerJMQ%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$9.99","priceAmount":9.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"9","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"%2FRiMyA93tTngoE1JH%2FeuBXSDHrAso%2FUhHOToI21SYl2zaPQlYBUjV5jRMyTuicpVNB%2BL5RJ7p%2BEHQfOuXDoJlDgKCMvcOx9GRcbKxaUBI7NBX6Zd7nufllQB7w3cV3vXdQtcdp4vkBIL0vXYb8MQW2lUZjnTGCNsJN82Q8uQfUGDlT6mJOMl3hpH95Ox8719","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

A wise, bighearted, boundlessly joyful novel of love, disaster, and unconventional family

Jane falls in love with Duncan easily. He is charming, good-natured, and handsome but unfortunately, he has also slept with nearly every woman in Boyne City, Michigan. Jane sees Duncan’s old girlfriends everywhere–at restaurants, at the grocery store, even three towns away.

While Jane may be able to come to terms with dating the world’s most prolific seducer of women, she wishes she did not have to share him quite so widely. His ex-wife, Aggie, a woman with shiny hair and pale milkmaid skin, still has Duncan mow her lawn. His coworker, Jimmy, comes and goes from Duncan’s apartment at the most inopportune times. Sometimes Jane wonders if a relationship can even work with three people in it–never mind four. Five if you count Aggie’s eccentric husband, Gary. Not to mention all the other residents of Boyne City, who freely share with Jane their opinions of her choices.

But any notion Jane had of love and marriage changes with one terrible car crash. Soon Jane’s life is permanently intertwined with Duncan’s, Aggie’s, and Jimmy’s, and Jane knows she will never have Duncan to herself. But could it be possible that a deeper kind of happiness is right in front of Jane’s eyes? A novel that is alternately bittersweet and laugh-out-loud funny, Katherine Heiny’s Early Morning Riser is her most astonishingly wonderful work to date.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    336 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    HARPER COLLINS
  4. Publication date
    March 8, 2022
  5. Dimensions
    5.08 x 0.87 x 7.8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0008395136
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0008395131
  8. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now

Frequently bought together

Early Morning Riser
$12.50
Get it as soon as Friday, May 17
Only 10 left in stock (more on the way).
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Standard Deviation: A novel (Vintage Contemporaries)
$17.00
Get it as soon as Friday, May 17
In Stock
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
+
Single, Carefree, Mellow (Vintage Contemporaries)
$14.53
Get it as soon as Monday, May 20
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.
Sold by BAFA LLC and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.
Total price:
To see our price, add these items to your cart.
Details
Added to Cart
Some of these items ship sooner than the others.
Show details Hide details
Choose items to buy together.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ HARPER COLLINS (March 8, 2022)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0008395136
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008395131
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.5 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.08 x 0.87 x 7.8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.0 4.0 out of 5 stars 4,589 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Katherine Heiny

Katherine Heiny

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Katherine Heiny is the author of Early Morning Riser, Standard Deviation and Single, Carefree, Mellow, and her short fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and many other magazines. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland with her husband and children, and is a former resident of London, The Hague, and Boyne City, Michigan.

Customer reviews

4 out of 5 stars
4 out of 5
4,589 global ratings
Once Again Captures The Essence Of The Human Condition With Humor
5 Stars
Once Again Captures The Essence Of The Human Condition With Humor
The prose of Katherine Heiny will make you chuckle to yourself a lot. Her plot ideas aren't big ones--in fact, they are our every day experiences and relationships that form the center of her narrative. She is able, however, to bring humor, poignancy, and tenderness to what may otherwise pass most of us by. By bringing ordinary people in ordinary places into our worldview, she creates a world in which her wry observations make all of us sit up and take notice. The human experience is certainly a shared one and Katherine's ability to voice all of our strength, weakness and human foibles in her character voices makes it nearly impossible for me to put down her books and stories. Early Morning Riser is no exception. Although it may seem that Jane is the focus of her efforts this time, in her relationship with the affable and serial dater, Duncan, it is really her interaction with the community and, ultimately, her relationship with Jim that defines much of this story. Katherine's description of our children, well, here, Jane's children, is also almost poetic as she allows for the clear possibility of imperfection while understanding they also make our hearts explode with tenderness in the midst of the chaos. This isn't a feel good novel for the ages. It is, in fact, a realistic view of how most of us live our lives, in real time, with real other people, every day and the way we come to live with them too. I can't wait to read it again and see what I may have missed!
Hide
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry, there was an error
Sorry we couldn't load the review

Top reviews from the United States

Kindle Customer Beth
5.0 out of 5 stars Charming and funny
Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2024
Verified Purchase
I laughed out loud while reading this book, which can be kind of embarrassing if you're in a crowd of quiet librarians. See, now I am even funny! Seriously, Katherine Heiny is my new favorite author in the this-is-real-life genre. I loved her characters in this book; a mixed bag of weird humans who, in the long run, are exceptionally believable, (except maybe Gary. I don't know how he would actually keep a wife, much less a job)! Read this book! It will make you feel really good about imperfect people and life.
Helpful
 Report
Brenda Schneider
4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable
Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2022
Verified Purchase
I loved the characters and the small town setting. Something about the book gave me a feeling of franticness though , like I was ready to get off the merry go round. I love how books effect people in different ways. I would recommend it.
Helpful
 Report
PA female
3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing Book
Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2023
Verified Purchase
Looked for what was a funny novel, but it didn’t make me laugh at all. As a writer, Ms. Heiny didn’t do it for me. Meh.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
switterbug/Betsey Van Horn
5.0 out of 5 stars Fools for love
Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2021
Verified Purchase
A friend recommended this book for its quirky story and characters--in fact, it is a delightfully absorbing and very Anne Tyler-esque story style. People in Heiny’s story are stubbornly themselves, at times to a fault, and at other times to correct that fault. Even if guilt was a motivating impulse for a life-changing choice, more poignant is what nestles underneath the guilt--the heart. Everyone in Heiny’s story evolves, even secondary characters.

If you’ve ever experienced or known an extended family or modern family household, here you are. The author’s droll wit and dusky drama keep us tilted--and Jane and Duncan rival the best of comedically paired romantic partners. Reckless fools for love.

Jane has a little bit of Annie Hall in her, with her love of thrift store furniture and clothing, and Duncan possesses the irresistible Burt Reynolds love-‘em-and-leave-‘em charm, but he will gladly go fix anyone’s fence or sink like a gentleman handyman, and is only glad to do so. But, at his woodworking shop, he has pieces there for months overdue to his inaction and totally laid-back lifestyle. Allergic to marriage, too. A rake, a lover, and a unicorn.

There are a couple of characters on the spectrum, like Jimmy, who is likely IDD, but is easy to please, genuine, and lovable. He works at Duncan’s shop—Duncan keeps him employed--and lives with his mother. Duncan’s ex-wife, Aggie, is annoying and intrusive (but means well most of the time), Aggie, who still maintains contact and cooks like James Beardsley or Julia Child, has a flat affect and inattentive husband who Aggie mothers. Freida, Jane’s best friend, goes nowhere without her mandolin and is fierce about music, plays everywhere she goes.

The novel stretches 17 years, but not like a saga or epic. Just a quiet story in Boyne City, Michigan. Ordinary people, until they mean something to you. Jane teaches second grade, and if I forget much of the novel in the future, I’ll always remember those rug rats, with all their little big personalities. A book for any season and every mood.

“You gave it to him. You carved out a crucial little part of yourself, and you not only gave it to him, you begged him to take it…you were sure at that moment that you would always have an endless supply…because you were one of the lucky ones. So you gave it to him. You did it--you did--you stupid, reckless fool.”
17 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Jen Ben
4.0 out of 5 stars Great characters
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2022
Verified Purchase
This is a good story and the character development is wonderful. You really feel like you know these people. The ending was rather abrupt and disappointing though.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Mary Lins
5.0 out of 5 stars ALLLL The Feels!
Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2021
Verified Purchase
I’m not going to mince words here: I loved “Early Morning Riser” so much that when I finished I almost turned back to the first page and started over. I would have, too, if I didn’t have commitments to review other books right now.

How do I love thee, Katherine Heiny, let me count the ways! Your writing is wonderfully evocative, so full of humanity, brilliantly witty, compelling, and IMMEDIATELY captivating because your characters are so perfect.

Would it live up to “Standard Deviation” which I adore and have read multiple times? Well, I’m happy to report that I knew it would after just the first page. I DEVOURED it like I was starving and it was my favorite meal (Mexican Food), even though I wanted to savor it! (I’ll savor it when I read it again.)
Heiny again creates characters that are quirky, funny, complex, deep, and totally unforgettable.

This is the story of second-grade teacher, Jane, whom at the start has just moved to a small town in Michigan (where the author happens to live). What I love about Heiny’s stories is that just when you think it’s going one way, she zags instead of zigs and you are in an unexpected place – just like in real life! This happens with Jane and you will NOT be able to stop reading because you will be dying to know what will happen next!

I recommend avoiding reading anything about the plot of this novel; just jump in with glee, as I did! All you need to know is that it’s full of great characters (Duncan! Jimmie! Jane’s mom! All the second graders!) and it presents Jane’s life and loves in a beautifully poignant, hopeful, and thoroughly satisfying way.

Not every writer can truly capture children; Heiny does does does! What a pleasure.

Note to Anne Tyler fans (as I am): Heiny’s characters are quirky and wonderfully flawed as Tyler’s are; the difference is that Heiny’s characters have sex [I write with a smile] there's a reason there is a bed on the cover.
29 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Brittneyrw
4.0 out of 5 stars A little underwhelming
Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2021
Verified Purchase
I am not sure what I expected from this book, honestly! Someone that I usually love their recommendations sent this one and I just wasn't satisfied with how it was wrapped up. The characters are very relatable and I even could picture people I knew personally as each of them. It encompasses real life with real characters. I just wanted more.
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
doglover
2.0 out of 5 stars Meh
Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2021
Verified Purchase
I can't figure out why the great reviews. Humor? Not really...or maybe my standards are too high. I also like some sort of overall reason to want to keep reading. Not finding it here. I'm a bit better than halfway through this book and I'm basically just plain bored. I just don't care about these people and won't be sticking around to find out if anything interesting happens.

Goodwill can pass this one along to someone else.
46 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

tGP
5.0 out of 5 stars Sweet, funny, perceptive book perfect for now
Reviewed in Canada on May 17, 2021
Verified Purchase
I loved the tone of this book. Although long past the dating, little kids stage of my life, I recognized many moments. I found many of the characters rang true, from the bossy, control-freak, Aggie to Jane’s mother, with her passive-aggressive put-downs.
Jimmy was a wonderful character, a boy-man whose humanity,gentleness and naievity moved the plot forward. How refreshing to find a” challenged” person so loved and warmly portrayed.
But the best observations were saved for the scenes in the classroom, Hainy’s hilarious description of the field trip to the farm was memorable.
The only false note was Garry. Why would Aggie put up with his persnickety ways when she had been married to the laidback Duncan?
Report
D. C. A. Price
5.0 out of 5 stars Pure joy.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 25, 2021
Verified Purchase
I absolutely loved “Standard Deviation” - and this novel is even better. I wanted it to never end. The main character, Jane, is wonderful - so kind and loving but also human and we’re privy to her less than kind thoughts. Her mother is a masterpiece in insensitivity, Jane’s husband, Duncan, has so many local ex-girlfriends it’s hard for Jane to think of names for her baby girls, and Jane has also taken on the care of Jimmy, an adult with learning difficulties. There is boundless wit and humour - I don’t often laugh out loud but did so frequently - as well as unexpectedly tender moments, when Jane’s mother tells a worried Jimmy that he can be a great help to Jane when she has the baby as she tells him that Jane will say to him “Oh Jimmy, I would be lost without you’”. Almost every other character is quirky - Aggie, Duncan’s ex-wife, who still feels she has a claim on him, and her extremely strange current husband; and Jane’s mandolin-playing friend, Freida, and her husband still known to everyone as Mr Hutchinson. This book is pure joy - I’m bereft now it’s finished!
3 people found this helpful
 Report
Alpha Reader
5.0 out of 5 stars Much like Jane, I really ended up liking where the story took me.
Reviewed in Australia on May 16, 2021
Verified Purchase
'Early Morning Riser' is the new contemporary fiction novel from US author Katherine Heiny, and my first book of hers that I've read.

I believe the title of this book spins around the old saying; "Waking up early allows me to fill my cup before anyone else starts to drain it," or some variation thereof. It follows 24-year-old Jane who has just moved to Boyne City, Michigan to teach second grade when she gets locked out of her house one day and meets local locksmith, carpenter, and all-round handyman (in more ways than one) - Duncan. The two tumble into bed and a relationship pretty quickly - but Jane comes to realise that 40-something year-old Duncan has quite the history in the approx 2000 population Boyne City and surrounds. He's been around, and it seems to Jane that she's constantly meeting or bumping into his ex-girlfriends and bedmates. Including his beautiful milkmaid of an ex-wife, Aggie.

Duncan is also closely tied to his co-worker; the developmentally challenged young man Jimmy - whom the town of Boyne City collectively looks out for, along with his Mama. And through a series of tragic events, it looks like Jane's life will begin inexplicably orbiting this town and Duncan's many relationships too ... forming a life she didn't precisely envision for herself, but is no less the one she maybe always wanted.

I really loved this book. I didn't know what I was really in for with a fairly vague blurb, and an invitingly bright front-cover seeming to follow the illustrated aesthetic of many contemporary romance and 'women's fiction' titles ... but Katherine Heiny's other book ('Standard Deviation') came recommended to me, and so I was keen to try her latest release. I will say that 'Early Morning Riser' kept surprising me, and I loved it for that especially.

If you need to hitch a theme or recurring thought to this story it comes in a small moment when Duncan's ex-wife Aggie comes round to Jane's house for a brief stay, and sees a chipped tureen sitting on the counter that she confidently proclaims is hers;

***
Jane stood at the door on the morning Aggie moved in, striving for an expression of warm and loving welcome, but the first thing Aggie did was gesture at the bowl of dried flowers on the kitchen table and say, "I believe that's my soup tureen."
"No, it's mine," Jane said. "I bought it at the thrift store."
"I'm sure you did." Aggie put her hands on her hips. "But it used to be mine. Duncan and I got it as a wedding present from the Mitfords. I recognize the chip on the handle. How much did you pay for it?"
"Ninety-nine cents," said Jane. (It had actually been twelve dollars.)
***

Herein lies the crux of the story. Jane is a humble elementary school teacher with a penchant for secondhand everything, up-cycling and thrifting. Heiny hilariously plays with this, that Jane is not an Instagram-influencer level of vintage-shopper; her outfits are often odd and ill-fitting, when her mother comes to visit she'll make snide comments about their weird amalgamation. But Jane is happiest in a thrift store and enjoys her ingenuity ... much as she appreciates Duncan's clear sexual experience gained from many former lovers. Until the secondhand, passed-down nature of both is explicitly pointed out to her. Then as much as Jane tries, she can't help musing on Duncan's very nature and whether or not he'll forever be wandering.

That's a real over-simplification for what Heiny does here, ultimately. Especially because 'Early Morning Riser' is not following the typical trajectory of a contemporary romance. I kept expecting them, probably because Jane does too. She's that kind of relatable character and we're so beautifully given her interior by Heiny; that we expect her to be the classic movie-star hero of her own life ... there are many moments when I think we're built up to expect a big confrontation or AH-HA! moment, a loving declaration or accusatory revelation.

But they don't come. Because this isn't a fairytale or movie. This is ... life. So the big revelations are quieter; they come in raised-eyebrows, what's left unsaid, inference rather than dramatisation. It really is the little things. A quiet life built together. Shared struggles and messy, complicated families.

This comes back around towards the end, when Jane comes to a gentle understanding that maybe she's not the harbinger of her own bad-luck. That maybe the path she took was inevitable and self-determined because she chose her family, built them for herself - didn't have it all thrust upon her - and actually what she always thought of as 'bad luck' and her lot in life, is closer to the one she wanted all along.

In the thrift store of life, Jane chose the pieces that spoke to her - chips and all.

I really, really loved this story of quiet lives and building families. I will totally admit that because I came to it with my more commercial-fiction and romance genre background, I did find myself *wanting* and *yearning* for the big, definitive romantic declarations and revelations - and that I probably still had that desire by book's end, which didn't make for a fully-rounded reading experience for me. But much like Jane, I really ended up liking where the story took me.
Report
Helen Barnes
4.0 out of 5 stars Daft but warmhearted novel
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 21, 2023
Verified Purchase
I wanted something feelgood while recovering from surgery and this hit the spot. A bit like a youthful and more libidinous Anne Tyler, though not as subtle in characterisation.
Report
Snapdragon
4.0 out of 5 stars Funny, with a great tang of real life
Reviewed in Australia on June 11, 2021
Verified Purchase
Jane comes to a small town on the shores of Lake Michigan as an elementary teacher. Several years later, she’s still a teacher - a good one - and she’s married in unusual circumstances with two young daughters, the younger of whom is a handful: a very robust character with a strong will. In between are the ups and downs of ordinary life: an embarrassing mother, a bossy friend who’s her husband’s ex, a mandolin-playing music teacher friend who marries for the first time at 48, and above all, the lovely but somewhat mentally handicapped young man who becomes their charge. Jane’s life is described so well you’d swear the author is a second grade teacher herself. There are lots of amusing authorial remarks and there is, indeed,something of the feel of The World According to Garp about this, as each person practices being human and understanding what life is all about, including absorbing guilt and learning what’s really needed. An absorbing, entertaining and satisfying read. Good stuff.
Report