A kalei­do­scop­ic por­trait of a mod­ern Amer­i­can fam­i­ly — stead­fast, com­pli­cat­ed, begrudg­ing, and lov­ing — from the best­selling author of Iso­la

Was this just a brief skir­mish, or the begin­ning of a thir­ty-year feud? In the Rubin­stein fam­i­ly, it could go either way.

When their beloved sis­ter pass­es away, Sylvia and Helen Rubin­stein are unmoored. A mis­un­der­stand­ing about apple cake turns into a decade of stub­born silence. Busy with their own lives — divorces, dat­ing, career set­backs, col­lege appli­ca­tions, bat mitz­vahs and bal­let recitals — their chil­dren do not want to get involved. As for their grand­chil­dren? Impos­si­ble.

With This Is Not About Us, mas­ter sto­ry­teller Alle­gra Good­man — whose pri­or col­lec­tion was her­ald­ed as ​“one of the most astute and engag­ing books about Amer­i­can fam­i­ly life” (The Boston Globe) — returns to the form and sub­ject that endeared her to legions of read­ers. Sharply observed and laced with humor, This Is Not About Us is a sto­ry of grow­ing up and grow­ing old, the weight of parental expec­ta­tions, and the com­plex con­nec­tion between sis­ters — a big-heart­ed book about the love that binds a fam­i­ly across generations.