Normal People Don't Live Like This - Softcover

Landis, Dylan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0892553545 ISBN 13: 9780892553549

Publisher: Persea, 2009

Synopsis

“Wonderful! Leah and Helen are authentic, vulnerable characters, whose intimate truths are exposed at perfect, unexpected moments.”―Elizabeth Strout

At the center of this startling fiction debut is Leah Levinson, a teen at sea in the anonymous ordeals of a middle-class upbringing on the Upper West Side in the 1970s. In ten installments, written from varying perspectives, we witness her uneasy relationships with faster, looser peers―girls she is drawn to but also alienated by.

No one, though, alienates Leah more than her mother, Helen. Estranged yet intertwined, they struggle within the confines of their personalities, unaware of how similar their paths are. Just when they seem at a lonely impasse, each makes an impulsive change―Leah taking a risky trip abroad, Helen renting a secret room in a welfare hotel. Jolted from their old patterns, the two of them independently glimpse the possibility of a more hopeful life.

Dylan Landis is a gifted portraitist of unforgettable female characters. Normal People Don’t Live Like This is a striking debut.

About this title

About the Author:

Dylan Landis has published stories in Bomb, Tin House, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and elsewhere. A former journalist, she has won a Poets & Writers California Voices Award and other honors for her fiction. She lives in Washington, DC.

Review:

“[A] lean, beguiling novel in stories. . . .Elegantly written.”
- Eryn Loeb, Bookforum

“Some delicious writing. . . .Buy this for your literary fiction readers and short story fans.”
- Ellen Loughran, Booklist

“The tales in this bravura work are timeless: They could easily belong to our daughters’ generation instead of our own.”
- More magazine

About this edition

• Publisher: Persea
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0892553545
• ISBN 13: 9780892553549
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 181