-
Get a Free Issue
of our Ezine!
A Novel
by Claire Lombardo
The New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had ("wonderfully immersive…deliciously absorbing"—NPR) returns with another brilliantly observed family drama in which the enduring, hard-won affection of a long marriage faces imminent derailment from events both past and present.
Same As It Ever Was showcases the consummate style, signature wit, and profound emotional intelligence that made The Most Fun We Ever Had one of the most beloved novels of the past decade. Featuring a memorably messy family and the multifaceted marriage at its heart, Lombardo's debut was dubbed "the literary love child of Jonathan Franzen and Anne Tyler" (The Guardian)) and hailed as "ambitious and brilliantly written" (Washington Post). In this remarkable follow-up—another elegant and tumultuous story in the tradition of Elizabeth Strout, Ann Patchett, and Celeste Ng—Lombardo introduces us to an unforgettable cast of characters, this time by way of her singularly complicated protagonist.
Julia Ames, after a youth marked by upheaval and emotional turbulence, has found herself on the placid plateau of mid-life. But Julia has never navigated the world with the equanimity of her current privileged class. Having nearly derailed herself several times, making desperate bids for the kind of connection that always felt inaccessible to her, she finally feels, at age fifty seven, that she has a firm handle on things.
She's unprepared, though, for what comes next: a surprise announcement from her straight-arrow son, an impending separation from her spikey teenaged daughter, and a seductive resurgence of the past, all of which threaten to draw her back into the patterns that had previously kept her on a razor's edge.
Same As It Ever Was traverses the rocky terrain of real life—exploring new avenues of maternal ambivalence, intergenerational friendship, and the happenstantial cause-and-effect that governs us all. Delving even deeper into the nature of relationships—how they grow, change, and sometimes end—Lombardo proves herself a true and definitive cartographer of the human heart and asserts herself among the finest novelists of her generation.
"Pitch-perfect... Lombardo is compulsively readable and consistently funny, and it's impossible to look away as Julia continues to self-sabotage. This domestic drama hits all the right notes." —Publisher's Weekly (starred review)
"Lombardo's density of sociological and psychological details is immersive at best but can sometimes be enervating." —Kirkus Reviews
"Lombardo loves her characters, taking time to peel back each of their layers through the time-lapse structure of the novel and her rich descriptions... A sure bet for fans of Richard Russo and Jane Smiley." —Booklist
"Sparkling... Readers will be torn between their instinct to race to the finish and their desire to savor every page." —Publisher's Weekly Summer Reads
"Witty and insightful...a powerful exploration of marriage, motherhood, and self." —Bonnie Garmus, bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry
This information about Same As It Ever Was 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.
Claire Lombardo is the author of The Most Fun We Ever Had, which has been optioned for television by Reese Witherspoon. She lives in Iowa City, where she has taught at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and Grinnell College and works part-time as a bookseller at Prairie Lights Books.
.png)
We'll Prescribe You a Cat
by Syou Ishida
Discover the bestselling Japanese novel celebrating the healing power of cats.
Before the Mango Ripens by Afabwaje Kurian
Both epic and intimate, this debut announces a brilliant new talent for readers of Imbolo Mbue and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
