'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 PLEASURES The 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