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This Is Not About Us

This Is Not About Us

Fiction

About the Book

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

“A compelling, love-laced portrait of several generations of a family much like yours, mine and just about everyone’s.”—People (Most Anticipated Books of 2026)

 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.
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Praise for This Is Not About Us

“In this vibrant collection of linked stories . . . Allegra Goodman dissects the foibles and fantasies of her cast, from the three founding sisters to their offspring and offspring’s offspring.”—Time

“The arbiter of Jewish American family tsuris . . . Goodman has been wowing readers since her undergraduate days at Harvard, in the late 1980s. . . . Readers will leave This Is Not About Us wanting one more story—and then a second helping.”—Hadassah Magazine

“Allegra Goodman’s utterly charming new book is carving out new territory in the genre of linked short stories. . . . This is a volume that builds and surprises on many fronts, the cacophony of love and discontent reifying into filigreed depictions of the familial ties that bind.”—Vogue

“Goodman’s insight into the intimate machinations of a domestic life is absolutely perfect.”—Literary Hub

“Goodman delivers a bighearted linked story collection about a family’s travails. . . . In their messiness and constant striving for harmony, the Rubensteins are wholly relatable.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“A beautiful story of generations of a complicated family.”—Town & Country

“Goodman offers an unsparingly frank, wryly funny take on a multigenerational American family. Like an exquisitely baked apple cake, Goodman’s delicious and deeply perceptive novel is something to savor.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Goodman overlaps characters and storylines, repeatedly, from different perspectives and the reader is treated to experiencing the family as a symphony, not necessarily a harmonious arrangement, but satisfying all the same as an excellent read.”—Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews

“Astute, incisive, and soulfully witty, Goodman circulates among her irresistible characters to that each intriguing point of view reveals another facet of their tumultuous family dynamic.”—Booklist, starred review

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About the Author

Allegra Goodman
Allegra Goodman’s novels include The Chalk Artist, Intuition, The Cookbook Collector, Paradise Park, and Kaaterskill Falls (a National Book Award finalist). Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Commentary, and Ploughshares and has been anthologized in The O. Henry Awards and Best American Short Stories. She has written two collections of short stories, The Family Markowitz and Total Immersion and a novel for younger readers, The Other Side of the Island. Her essays and reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, The Boston Globe, The Jewish Review of Books, and The American Scholar. Raised in Honolulu, Goodman studied English and philosophy at Harvard and received a PhD in English literature from Stanford. She is the recipient of a Whiting Writer’s Award, the Salon Award for Fiction, and a fellowship from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced study. She lives with her family in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she is writing a new novel. More by Allegra Goodman
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