{"product_id":"like-normal-people","title":"Like Normal People","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBender has crafted a luminous, meditative novel on the boundaries between childhood, adulthood, and old age.\" -\u003cem\u003eEntertainment Weekly\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA tour de force of literary craft and emotional resonance, \u003cem\u003eLike Normal People\u003c\/em\u003e charts a family constellation that revolves around an off-kilter center: Lena, who is forty-eight but mentally locked in childhood. Moving deftly between present and past, the novel follows Lena's day-long escape from her residential home with her troubled twelve-year-old niece. While this odd couple takes refuge on a honky-tonk southern California beach, Lena’s widowed mother, Ella, goes in search of them. In the process, Ella relives her own life's dreams and disappointments: her marriage to a sweet, loving shoe salesman; her discovery of Lena's handicap and her aching attempts to give her daughter a \"normal\" childhood. For so long, Lena has been the focus of Ella's world. When Lena at last finds approximate normalcy -- by marrying a man much like herself -- Ella must contend with letting her daughter go.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCovering three entire lifetimes in the course of one day, \u003cem\u003eLike Normal People \u003c\/em\u003eis tender, often hilarious, and deeply moving. Bender brilliantly enters into the consciousness of three women at very different stages of life, each on a private search for love and acceptance. \u003cem\u003eLike Normal People\u003c\/em\u003e is a novel about desire, about what constitutes normality, and, most poignantly, about the ways in which a family finds its strength in the face of adversity.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKaren Bender's powerfully affecting first novel has garnered remarkable early attention. Portions of the novel have been published in \u003cem\u003eThe New Yorker, Granta\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eStory \u003c\/em\u003emagazine. An excerpt chosen for \u003cem\u003eThe Best American Short Stories\u003c\/em\u003e by Annie Proulx was recorded by Joanne Woodward and aired on NPR's Selected Shorts.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Karen Bender","offers":[{"title":"Trade Paperback","offer_id":55253022671139,"sku":"9780618126927","price":14.4,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0930\/2258\/5123\/files\/9780618126927.jpg?v=1781808874","url":"https:\/\/epicreads.com\/products\/like-normal-people","provider":"Epic Reads","version":"1.0","type":"link"}