This Is Not About Us

“An all-too-real portrait of a loveable, complicated family’s drama.”—People

“In this vibrant collection of linked stories . . . Allegra Goodman dissects the foibles and fantasies of her cast, from the three founding sisters to their offspring and offspring’s offspring.”—Time

“Allegra Goodman’s new novel is her crowning glory (so far). This is Not About Us delivers a funny and moving Jewish family saga.”—The Boston Globe

“Goodman overlaps characters and storylines, repeatedly, from different perspectives and the reader is treated to experiencing the family as a symphony, not necessarily a harmonious arrangement, but satisfying all the same as an excellent read.”—Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews

“The arbiter of Jewish American family tsuris . . . Goodman has been wowing readers since her undergraduate days at Harvard, in the late 1980s.”—Hadassah Magazine

“An absorb­ing, endear­ing, and inti­mate new work of linked fiction . . . Through this mas­ter­ful­ly woven mosa­ic . . . a relat­able por­trait of an Amer­i­can Jew­ish fam­i­ly with all its atten­dant mishe­gas takes shape.”—Jewish Book Council

“This is a volume that builds and surprises on many fronts, the cacophony of love and discontent reifying into filigreed depictions of the familial ties that bind.”—Vogue

“An entertaining ride—poignant and funny by turns. Goodman, always talented, is now a virtuoso, limber and graceful. She handles her sprawling cast with a sure, light touch, and her bantering dialogue is never trivial or canned.”—The Washington Post

“This Is Not About Us is my favorite kind of read—it’s not a novel, it’s not a short story collection, it’s a book of linked stories that together add up to a big, messy, richly textured modern family drama. The characters can feel unnervingly relatable, for me at least, in that modern Jewish American way that they nag and worry, obsess and adore, cook and bake and gather.”—Jenny Rosenstrach, Three Things Substack

“Goodman’s insight into the intimate machinations of a domestic life is absolutely perfect.”—Literary Hub

“Goodman delivers a bighearted linked story collection about a family’s travails. . . . In their messiness and constant striving for harmony, the Rubensteins are wholly relatable.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“A beautiful story of generations of a complicated family.”—Town & Country

“Goodman offers an unsparingly frank, wryly funny take on a multigenerational American family. Like an exquisitely baked apple cake, Goodman’s delicious and deeply perceptive novel is something to savor.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Astute, incisive, and soulfully witty, Goodman circulates among her irresistible characters to that each intriguing point of view reveals another facet of their tumultuous family dynamic.”—Booklist, starred review

“A memorable, multifaceted portrait of a family’s highs and lows.”—Book Page