TRACY MANASTER
You Could Be Home By Now
About
The Commons is a luxury retirement community in sunny, scenic Arizona whose regulations prohibit full-time residents under the age of fifty-five. It’s also (theoretically) an ideal place for young professionals Seth and Alison Collier to accept jobs as a means of dealing (badly) with a recent loss.
But life in The Commons isn’t all tee times and poolside lounging, and when a struggling resident, underwater on her mortgage and unable to relocate due to the nation’s ongoing housing crisis, is discovered to be raising her grandson in secret, the story—with the help of a teenage beauty blogger and a retiree with reasons of his own to seek the spotlight—goes viral. You Could Be Home By Now explores the fallout for all involved, taking on the themes of grief and memory, aspiration and social class, self-deception and the drive in all of us to find a place to belong.
Praise
“Poignant, funny debut … .A hoot that will touch your heart!”
–People Magazine
“The setting is the only thing sleepy about Manaster’s debut. Complex, interweaving stories tangle inside The Commons, a retirement community outside Tucson, Arizona … .A scintillating drama that’s touching, funny and impossible to put down.”
–Kirkus Reviews
“Manaster weaves … disparate tales of strife and grief eloquently, impressively depicting an adolescent girl and an aging man with equal fullness and depth. She also resists the urge for easy resolution … instead offering small amounts of emotional satisfaction that feel realistic and earned.”
–Publishers Weekly
“Manaster’s debut is an adventurous undertaking, both light and insightful. The wide range of characters … is well depicted and appealing. For fans of realistically written, flawed-human narratives—with a flair for fun.”
—Library Journal
“In the best tradition of Jane Austen, Tracy Manaster’s sharply observed, humane, and expertly constructed new novel has a keen intelligence, a warm heart, and a spine of steel. Told in glitteringly witty prose with a wide range of brilliantly evoked characters, it is honest about the inevitability of loss and hopeful about the possibility of joy. It’s also the most fun I’ve had reading a novel in ages.”
—James Hynes, author of Next
“In You Could Be Home By Now, Tracy Manaster delivers a many-faceted gem of a story, featuring a lively and compelling range of characters,—each one real enough to step off the page. Tracy’s savagely intelligent prose eases from heartbreak to humor effortlessly. I loved this book. A remarkable achievement, one that bears not just reading, but rereading.”
—V.V. Ganeshananthan, author of Love Marriage