Oprah picks Maria Semple

Oprah Winfrey has chosen Maria Semple’s new novel *Go Gentle* for Oprah’s Book Club, making it the club’s April 2026 selection. (oprah.com) The announcement arrived on April 14, 2026, the same day G.P. Putnam’s Sons published the 384-page novel. Oprah’s site lists it as Book Club Pick No. 122. (oprah.com) (penguinrandomhouse.com) The book follows Adora Hazzard, a Stoic philosopher, divorcée and single mother on Manhattan’s Upper West Side whose ordered life is disrupted by a stranger, black-market art deals and secrets from her past. The Associated Press and Penguin Random House both describe it as a comic novel centered on a midlife upheaval. (apnews.com) (penguinrandomhouse.com) For publishers, an Oprah pick still functions like a national launch event. Oprah’s site paired the selection with a podcast conversation and reader questions, turning the announcement into a built-in discussion campaign on release week. (oprah.com) (cbsnews.com) For Semple, the pick puts a new novel behind an author already known to a mass audience. Her 2012 novel *Where’d You Go, Bernadette* became a best seller and was later adapted into a 2019 film directed by Richard Linklater and starring Cate Blanchett. (mariasemple.com) (britannica.com) Semple also came to novels after a television career. Before publishing fiction, she wrote for shows including *Beverly Hills, 90210*, *Mad About You*, *Ellen* and *Arrested Development*. (mariasemple.com) Oprah described *Go Gentle* as “one wild ride of a story” on her book-club page, where she said Semple’s wit, humor and plot twists drove the selection. CBS also published an excerpt and a reader’s guide on announcement day, extending the rollout beyond Oprah’s own platform. (oprah.com) (cbsnews.com 1) (cbsnews.com 2) The timing gives *Go Gentle* the kind of opening many novels never get: a same-day publication and book-club debut, with Oprah’s audience meeting Adora Hazzard as soon as the book reaches stores. (apnews.com) (penguinrandomhouse.com)