Instruction Manual for Future Lover, Madeline Garfinkle‘s debut novel, is a sharp, funny exploration of modern dating, self-improvement, and the search for love. Determined to find a date for an upcoming wedding, a twenty-nine-year-old woman throws herself into dating apps, personal reinvention, and the chaos of romantic possibility, only to discover that the person she needs to find might be herself.
Garfinkle is a Brooklyn-based writer who received her MFA from Columbia University. Her work has appeared in Washington Square Review and elsewhere. Instruction Manual for Future Lover will be published by Simon & Schuster on May 18, 2027.
Debutiful is honored to reveal the cover of Instruction Manual for Future Lover, designed by Math Monahan. Below, Garfinkle discusses her love of minimalist covers, the novel’s exploration of performance and identity, and how a woman dancing with a ghostlike partner captures the longing and self-discovery at the heart of the story.
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