The Very Nice Box

Ava Simon designs storage boxes for STAEDA, a slick Brooklyn-based furniture company. She's hard-working, obsessive, and heartbroken from a tragedy that killed her girlfriend and upended her life. It's been years since she's let anyone in.

But when Ava's new boss, the young and magnetic Mat Putnam, offers Ava a ride home one afternoon, an unlikely relationship blossoms. Ava remembers how rewarding it can be to open up and, despite her hesitancy, she starts to fall for him. But what if Mat isn't who he claims to be?

The Very Nice Box is a darkly comic and suspenseful novel that will keep you on the edge of your seat until its gripping finale. It's at once a satire of toxic masculinity and a big-hearted account of grief, friendship, and trust.

The Very Nice Box possesses the rare quality of perfectly balanced quirky humour and genuine warmth. Gleichman and Blackett manage to include the reader on the inside joke and withhold just enough to make this, unmistakably, a page turner. Witty, charming, and astutely observed - I loved it' - Laura Kay, author of The Split

'Laura Blackett and Eve Gleichman are linguistic magicians, and their sparkling debut manages to expose the hollowness of wellbeing jargon while exploring, with tender care and precision, how we dare to move on after unspeakable loss' - New York Times Book Review

'A very funny debut and perhaps the most original office satire of the year' - Washington Post

'Rather than boxing in queerness, the authors suggest queerness as a lens for seeing, reading, and, arguably, for their own storytelling, which refuses trite or stereotypical generic moments. The story charms, it entices, and it keeps the reader in their hands, wanting more' - Los Angeles Review of Books