Families and Other Nonreturnable Gifts

NOW OUT IN STORES!  (Including Target, so you can go get all that great Target merchandise AND my book at the same time.)

It’s one of those books that wrote itself, just flowed, and was fun to write from beginning to end.

And here’s a quote from one of my favorite reviews:

“With an Ann Tyler like funny bone, LaZebnik thrusts us into the middle of an eccentric, brilliant, distant but loving family and turns the blender on high. LaZebnik’s talent for truth and emotional nuance creates a family that any one of us can embrace, for all families are like the Sedlaks.”

I’ll be posting more reviews on my home page.

And here’s the story:

Keats Sedlak is the sanest member of her nutty nuclear family, but that isn’t saying much. Even though she’s in her twenties, she’s still constantly being summoned back home to help out her brilliant and eccentric parents.  Her two genius siblings are useless: her older sister’s long gone, and her younger brother hasn’t left the house in years.  The one constant in her life is her devoted long-term boyfriend, Tom, who provides a safe port during every familial storm.

Keats always knew that her parents’ marriage wasn’t ideal, but they’d managed to coexist in misery for so long that she assumed they’d stay together forever, so she’s pretty stunned to find out her mother’s filing for divorce and putting their beloved old house on the market.  Even more of a shock is the discovery that her mother has already plunged headfirst into the midlife dating pool, with three different men in her rotation and an unnerving tendency to stay out until the wee hours of the morning.

As her family falls apart, Keats has to reevaluate everything she’s ever assumed about her parents, her siblings, the life she’s made apart from them all, and, most importantly, the kind of love she wants for herself.

“Claire LaZebnik has done it again. Families and Other Nonreturnable Gifts is a gem that’s equal parts sugar and spice. LaZebnik will capture you with her winning humor, but she’ll keep you with her keen insight. Just make sure that you clear your schedule before you pick it up because you won’t be able to put it down.” (Jillian Lauren, New York Times bestselling author of Some Girls )