Keystone Poetry
One Of Us

This Is Not About Us

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.

More Adult Books

  • When Ex-Green Beret George Hayduke returns from war to find his beloved Southwestern desert threatened by industrial development, it’s up to him to take the noxious bull by the horns.
  • With admirable scholarship, Mrs. Brooks has traced the background of conflict, analyzed the emotional climate at the time, pointed up the social and military organization in Utah, and revealed the forces which culminated in the great tragedy at Mountain Meadows.
  • These perspectival, character-driven stories center on the margins and are deeply rooted in New Orleanian culture.
  • In The Other Valley, sixteen-year-old Odile navigates the complexities of time and choice as she vies for a position on the Conseil, which controls the borders of her town. When she discovers that the parents of her friend Edme have crossed into her present from the future, she must confront her feelings for him while grappling with the immense responsibility of preserving the timeline.