Claire Lombardo je absolventkou magisterského programu tvůrčího psaní na Iowa Writers' Workshop. Její zkušenosti ze sociální práce v Chicagu obohatily její pohled na lidské vztahy a společenské problémy, což se odráží v jejích dílech. Lombardo se zaměřuje na hluboké zkoumání rodinných dynamik a složitostí lidské povahy. Její psaní vyniká psychologickou hloubkou a empatickým zobrazením postav.
Seznamte se, tohle jsou Sorensonovi! Rodinná sága o manželském páru, čtyřech dcerách, které mezi sebou neustále válčí, a jednom dlouho pohřbeném tajemství… Když se do sebe Marilyn a David zamilovali, netušili, co na ně čeká. O čtyřicet let později mají čtveřici rozdílných dcer, které bojují mezi sebou navzájem a se svými životy. Ovdovělá Wendy zmírňuje svůj smutek alkoholem a mladšími muži. Violet se potýká s úzkostí. Neurotická profesorka Liza zjistí, že je těhotná, ale není si jistá, zda dítě chce. A nakonec Grace, lehkovážná nejmladší dcera, která žije ve lži, o níž nemá nikdo z rodiny nejmenší tušení.
'Witty and insightful. A powerful exploration of marriage, motherhood, and
self' BONNIE GARMUS, author of LESSONS IN CHEMISTRY''It was such a pleasure to
bury myself in this book, a literary novel of family life which moved and
surprised me. You read on ravenously' CLARE CHAMBERS, author of SMALL
PLEASURESThe author of THE MOST FUN WE EVER HAD returns with a brilliantly
observed family drama, in which a long marriage faces imminent derailment from
events both past and present At fifty-seven, Julia Ames has found herself with
an improbably lovely life. Despite her inclination towards self-sabotage, she
has a husband she loves, two happy children and a quiet, contented existence
in the suburbs.But, out of the blue, things begin to change.Her always well-
behaved son, Ben, is acting strangely, and will soon make a shocking
announcement.Her beloved but belligerent teenage daughter is about to depart
for college, leaving Julia unexpectedly terrified of an empty nest.And, in the
local grocery store, Julia encounters a woman she hasn't seen for 20 years - a
woman whose friendship was once both her lifeline and, very nearly, her
downfall.Consumed with her checkered past and the chaos of her present, Julia
starts to spin out of control, at risk of destroying all she most
loves.Following Julia over the course of a few tumultuous months, bookended by
a birthday party and a wedding, and examining the fifty-plus years before,
Same as It Ever Was examines the complete and complicated trajectory of one
woman's life and asks what it takes to make - and to not break - a
family.PRAISE FOR CLAIRE LOMBARDO: 'A literary love child of Jonathan Franzen
and Anne Tyler' GUARDIAN'Lombardo juggles a huge cast of characters with
seeming effortlessness, bringing each to life with humour, vividness and acute
psychological insight' MADELINE MILLER, author of SONG OF ACHILLES'Lombardo
has a wry, often spiky humour and tightly written style that should appeal to
fans of Maria Semple, Emma Straub and Jennifer Egan' SUNDAY TIMES
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.
Julia Ames, Ende fünfzig, scheint ein glückliches Leben zu führen, bis unerwartete Nachrichten ihrer Kinder und eine Begegnung mit einer alten Freundin ihre Welt auf den Kopf stellen. Der Roman erforscht Julias komplexe Gefühle und die entscheidenden Momente, die das Schicksal ihrer Familie beeinflussen.