Same As It Ever Was: A Novel

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NAMED A BEST BOOK BY PEOPLE AND PARADE • The New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had returns with brilliantly observed novel of a woman in midlife on the verge of upending everything when sudden family events threaten to unearth her painful past.. “Infidelity, dysfunction, secrets – this family novel delivers." —The New York Times

Same As It Ever Was showcases the wit and profound emotional intelligence that made The Most Fun We Ever Had one of the most beloved novels of the decade (dubbed “the literary love child of Jonathan Franzen and Anne Tyler” by The Guardian) This remarkable follow-up—another elegant and tumultuous story in the tradition of Elizabeth Strout, Ann Patchett, and Celeste Ng—introduces us to Julia Ames, a singularly complicated protagonist.

After a youth marked by upheaval and emotional turbulence, Julia resides on the placid plateau of her mid-50s. 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 believes she has a firm handle on things.

She’s unprepared, though, for 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 place her on the kind of razor’s edge that she knows all too well.

Same As It Ever Was traverses the rocky terrain of real life, exploring maternal ambivalence, intergenerational friendship, and the happenstantial cause-and-effect that governs us all. Delving into the core of relationships—how they grow, change, and sometimes end—Lombardo proves herself a true and definitive cartographer of the human heart and is, without doubt, among the finest novelists of her generation.

About the Author

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.

Author Residence: Iowa City, Iowa

Author Hometown: Oak Park, Illinois