Oprah picks Maria Semple

Oprah Winfrey chose Maria Semple’s new novel *Go Gentle* for Oprah’s Book Club on April 14, putting the book into one of publishing’s biggest mainstream reading pipelines. (apnews.com) Winfrey announced the pick Tuesday on “CBS Mornings,” the same day the novel went on sale. Oprah’s site lists it as Book Club pick No. 122 and the April 2026 selection. (cbsnews.com) (oprah.com) The novel centers on Adora Hazzard, a divorced Stoic philosopher on Manhattan’s Upper West Side whose ordered life is disrupted by a stranger, black-market art deals and buried parts of her past. Penguin Random House lists the hardcover at 384 pages from G.P. Putnam’s Sons. (oprah.com) (penguinrandomhouse.com) For Semple, the pick lands on her return with a new novel after the success of *Where’d You Go, Bernadette*, the 2012 bestseller that later became a film. Her author site and publisher both billed *Go Gentle* as a major 2026 release ahead of publication. (penguinrandomhouse.com) (mariasemple.com) For Oprah’s club, the choice adds a comic literary novel to a brand that can still move a book from launch-week attention to long-tail discussion groups, podcasts and retail placement. Oprah’s page pairs the selection with an excerpt and an author conversation tied to the club. (oprah.com) (iheart.com) The pick also arrives in a crowded April celebrity-book-club cycle. Other April 2026 selections already circulating include Reese Witherspoon’s *Into the Blue*, Jenna Bush Hager’s *Upward Bound* and *Good Morning America*’s *Yesteryear*. (thefussylibrarian.com) Winfrey called the novel “one wild ride of a story” on the club page, and the rollout was built for immediate readers: announcement, excerpt and interview all landed as the book hit shelves. That gives *Go Gentle* a launch day few novels get. (oprah.com)