Normal People Don't Live Like This

At the centre of this startling fiction debut is Leah Levinson, a teen at sea in the anonymous ordeals of a middle-class upbringing on the Upper West Side in the 1970s. In ten instalments, written from varying perspectives, we witness her uneasy relationships with faster, looser peers-girls she is drawn to but also alienated by. No one, though, alienates Leah more than her mother, Helen. Estranged yet intertwined, they struggle within the confines of their personalities, unaware of how similar their paths are. Just when they seem at a lonely impasse, each makes an impulsive change-Leah taking a risky trip abroad, Helen renting a secret room in a welfare hotel. Jolted from their old patterns, the two of them independently glimpse the possibility of a more hopeful life. Dylan Landis is a gifted portraitist of unforgettable female characters. Normal People Don’t Live Like This is a striking debut.

Author Biography

Dylan Landis is the author of three works of fiction in the Rainey Royal Cycle set in 1970s Greenwich Village: the forthcoming novel in stories List of All Possible Desires; the novel Rainey Royal, a New York Times Editors’ Choice; and the novel in stories Normal People Don’t Live Like This. Her work has appeared in O. Henry Prize Stories, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and other anthologies. She has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in fiction and lives in Los Angeles.