The Good Life

A collection of short stories that are "at once laugh-out-loud funny and utterly serious" (Claire Messud, author of The Burning Girl).

"McGraw ably leavens heartbreak with humor . . . she renders quirky, refreshingly real characters—a mediocre ballet dancer who takes in a more successful dancer's daughter; an insecure self-help author who's thrown for a loop by a visit to her parents; a disillusioned bed-and-breakfast owner who flirts with moving to Aruba; Catholic priests who have trouble living up to their vows—on the verge of improving their lot in life. The happiness they catch glimpses of, though, frequently eludes their grasp . . . McGraw's pitch-perfect dialogue and artful closeups on the telling, trying details of ordinary lives deliver stories that are easy to read but hard to forget." —Publishers Weekly

"I love these stories about nice normal people trying—and failing—to cling to their fondest delusions." —Molly Giles, author of All the Wrong Places