Same As It Ever Was

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.

About the Author

Claire Lombardo earned her MFA in fiction at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Her debut novel, The Most Fun We Ever Had, debuted on the New York Times Bestseller List, and has been translated or is forthcoming in over a dozen languages. Claire has worked as a social worker and currently teaches fiction writing. She was born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois, and now lives in Iowa City, Iowa.

Reviews

"Same As It Ever Was is one of those big, grown-up existential novels about parenthood and marriage and teenagers and friendship and family life ... But there is also something new to it, something that is both easy reading and profound at the same time, specifically on feelings of failure and abandonment, all of it cleverly brushed with wit and humour. A strong recommend." —Matt Haig, author of The Midnight Library

"Infidelity, dysfunction, secrets – this family novel delivers ... A 500-page, multigenerational examination of the ties that bind ... Lombardo refashions domestic drama into something rich and strange, with echoes of Lorrie Moore's sardonic humour and Jonathan Franzen's dissection of class ... Like Franzen's Marion Hildebrandt, or Faye, the narrator of Rachel Cusk's Outline trilogy, Lombardo gives us a woman whose inner life is knotted and revelatory . . . Same as It Ever Was is a brave, nuanced book, lulling us with its rhythms but taking risks when we glance away." ―New York Times

"One of those beautifully written, keenly observed novels where not that much happens – other than, you know, life itself – but also so much happens ... Claire Lombardo has written a whole cast of characters so detailed, so specifically themselves, that you almost feel you could reach out and touch them." ―NPR

"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)

"A family saga to save as a treat and devour when you should be doing something else, in which events past and present upset a long marriage." ―Independent

"...Lombardo has such a fine eye for the weft and warp of a family's fabric. She understands the chemistry of that special epoxy of irritation and affection that keeps a marriage glued together. One finishes Same As It Ever Was with the satisfaction of knowing this complicated woman well – and the poignant disappointment of having to say goodbye ― Washington Post

"Moving back and forth in time, Claire Lombardo's astute and often moving second novel charts the life of the breathtakingly self-sabotaging Julia Ames ... Lombardo's psychological acuity and her compassion for her characters amply reward attention." ―Wall Street Journal

Dimensions: 15.7 x 3.81 x 23.1 cm