One Move, One Mouse, One Marriage
By Beth Weir
What if the life you built was no longer the life you wanted? Would it be too late to start again?
In One Move, One Mouse, One Marriage, Beth Weir delivers a poignant, wryly humorous exploration of identity, long-term love, and the fragile art of reinvention. When Josephine Crawford—a witty, newly retired academic—leaves her North Carolina home behind to follow her husband in pursuit of his dream job in Seattle, she expects a fresh start. What she gets instead is a twisted ankle and the creeping suspicion that her marriage might not survive the move.
With her career behind her and her husband, Lee, buried in work, Jo is left to navigate unfamiliar streets, unpack emotional baggage, and hold one-sided conversations with the creaky house she didn’t choose. As memories of past betrayals surface alongside the unopened moving boxes, Jo must confront what she’s truly made of—as a wife, mother, teacher, and as a woman.
From a rare bookstore to an unexpected friendship, from a long-forgotten letter to an unusual funeral, Jo’s world expands—tentatively, hilariously, painfully—and she reclaims her voice, her purpose, and her own version of happiness.
With a blend of warmth, wit, and insight, Weir paints a vivid portrait of midlife transformation. One Move, One Mouse, One Marriage is a luminous, life-affirming novel you won’t forget.
It’s quiet in the kitchen. “Oh, my kitchen.” The house doesn’t correct me. It is my kitchen. My quiet kitchen. I’ve never been in silence I didn’t invite or need. It’s eerie. My ears keep searching for sound. I’m in a new reality and it’s time for me to make my own weather.
— Beth Weir, One Move, One Mouse, One Marriage
About Beth
Beth Weir is a Kiwi by birth, lived in the United States for most of her adult life, and has recently retired back to New Zealand. In her previous life she was an elementary school teacher and a professor of education. After her first retirement, she served for five years as director of Seattle’s Dunn Gardens, before retiring for the second time.
She is the author of the travel memoir Brazil is a Full Plate, a co-author of the collection of essays Writing While Masked: Reflections on 2020 and Beyond, and the author of the Substack Stops Along the Way.
I have retired twice now. Once from a fully professional life at the college level and the second time as the director of a garden. It is a difficult period to navigate. Writing about it in novel form was therapeutic.
— Beth Weir
Coming February 2026 in paperback, ebook and audiobook
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