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This Is How It Always Is

A Novel

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This Is How It Always Is

Written by: Laurie Frankel
Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
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The Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick

*Named one of the top 10 books of 2017 by People Magazine*

“It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me think.” —Liane Moriarty, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Little Lies


This is how
a family keeps a secret…and how that secret ends up keeping them.

This is how a family lives happily ever after…until happily ever after becomes complicated.

This is how children change…and then change the world.

This is Claude. He’s five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess.

When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl.

Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They’re just not sure they’re ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. Until one day it explodes.

Laurie Frankel's This Is How It Always Is is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. And it’s about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again, parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts, children grow but not always according to plan. And families with secrets don’t get to keep them forever.

"The audiobook will undoubtedly steal hearts" - AudioFile

Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Heartfelt Tearjerking Thought-Provoking
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This was one of the best books I have read in a long time. 10/10

A heartwarming read

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The struggles and understanding of a family navigating a new path was great. The story of Grimwald drug on a little but helped educate the storyline. The author didn’t disguise the difficulties of our current world and lack of understanding but also showed the ability to learn and accept. Overall the story is powerful and complicated. It forces you to consider your own opinions and makes you wonder how you’d handle the same.

Powerful

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This book will have you in love and invested in a beautiful story, a beautiful family and open your eyes to an experience many can not imagine first hand. I was sad to see it end.

A must read

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Kind, sensitive, a little over written occasionally but that’s OK.
It gives a perspective that feels right. What more an one ask?

Loved it

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From 5 Claude knew he was more comfortable in a dress than jeans. He knew what made him feel right with in himself.

This is a story of love, support and family, a story of missteps and resteps.

It is well worth the time.

A wonderful tale of a child born to the wrong body

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