Lau­ren Grod­stein is the author of four nov­els, includ­ing the New York Times best­seller A Friend of the Fam­i­ly and the Wash­ing­ton Post Book of the Year The Expla­na­tion for Every­thing. She directs the MFA Pro­gram at Rut­gers Uni­ver­si­ty-Cam­den and lives in New Jer­sey with her hus­band son and dog.