Book Summary and Reviews of Our Short History by Lauren Grodstein

Our Short History by Lauren Grodstein

Our Short History

by Lauren Grodstein

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  • Published:
  • Mar 2017, 352 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

"In Our Short History, Lauren Grodstein breaks your heart, then miraculously pieces it back together so it's bigger - and stronger - than before. This novel will leave you appreciating both the messiness of life and the immense depths of love." - Celeste Ng, author of Everything I Never Told You

Karen Neulander, a successful New York political consultant, has always been fiercely protective of her son, Jacob, now six. She's had to be: when Jacob's father, Dave, found out Karen was pregnant and made it clear that fatherhood wasn't in his plans, Karen walked out of the relationship, never telling Dave her intention was to raise their child alone.

But now Jake is asking to meet his dad, and with good reason: Karen is dying. When she finally calls her ex, she's shocked to find Dave ecstatic about the son he never knew he had. First, he can't meet Jake fast enough, and then, he can't seem to leave him alone.

With just a few more months to live, Karen resists allowing Dave to insinuate himself into Jake's life. As she tries to play out her last days in the "right" way, Karen wrestles with the truth that the only thing she cannot bring herself to do for her son - let his father become a permanent part of his life - is the thing he needs from her the most. With heart-wrenching poignancy, unexpected wit, and mordant humor, Lauren Grodstein has created an unforgettable story about parenthood, sacrifice, and life itself.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Grodstein's (The Explanation for Everything) heartbreaking, character-driven story is told in the remarkable, believable voice of a courageous, sympathetic character. Recommended for readers of Jodi Picoult, Lisa Genova, or Sally Hepworth's The Mother's Promise." - Library Journal

"Grodstein (A Friend of the Family) deftly explores family relationships, but the device of Karen writing a book for her son is cumbersome and artificial. The power of the book is also undermined by the sentimental circumstances and predictable ending..." - Publishers Weekly

"Ultimately, this seems to be more an investigation into the stages of Karen's self-grieving and less an edifying guide for her son. A poignant and realistic portrait of the struggles with ovarian cancer that chafes a bit against its frame." - Kirkus

"Lauren Grodstein breaks your heart, then miraculously pieces it back together so it's bigger - and stronger - than before. This novel will leave you appreciating both the messiness of life and the immense depths of love." - Celeste Ng, author of Everything I Never Told You

"Funny and fast-paced and extraordinarily insightful on every page...Anyone lucky enough to get roughed-up by Grodstein's devastating, fearlessly honest, often hilarious, gorgeously written novel will exit it changed." - Karen Russell, author of Vampires in the Lemon Grove

"Lauren Grodstein has written a book with such a complicated range of emotion that I can't quite understand how she does it. In highlighting the fragility and depth of the relationship between a parent and a child, Grodstein miraculously makes you love the complexity of this world even as it tears you apart. Our Short History is a novel that will reverberate in your heart long after you finish it." - Kevin Wilson, author of The Family Fang

This information about Our Short History was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Author Information

Lauren Grodstein Author Biography

Photo: Nina Subin

Lauren Grodstein is the author of Our Short History, The Washington Post Book of the Year The Explanation for Everything, and the New York Times-bestselling A Friend of the Family, among other works. Her stories, essays, and articles have appeared in various literary magazines and anthologies, and have been translated into French, German, Chinese, and Italian, among other languages. Her work has also appeared in Elle, The New York Times, Refinery29, Salon.com, Barrelhouse, Post Road, and The Washington Post. She is a professor of English at Rutgers University-Camden, where she teaches in the MFA program in creative writing.

Author Interview
Link to Lauren Grodstein's Website

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