National Book Award 5 under 35 winner
The characters in Happy Like This are smart girls and professional women鈥攕ocial scientists, linguists, speech therapists, plant physiologists, dancers鈥攚ho search for happiness in roles and relationships that are often unscripted or unconventional. In the midst of their ambivalence about marriage, monogamy, and motherhood and their struggles to accept and love their bodies, they look to other women for solidarity, stability, and validation. Sometimes they find it; sometimes they don鈥檛. Spanning a wide range of distinct perspectives, voices, styles, and settings, the ten shimmering stories in Happy Like This offer deeply felt, often humorous meditations on the complexity of choice and the ambiguity of happiness.
鈥淲urzbacher deploys her encyclopedic command of various ideas, regions, professions and lexicons with the authority of seasoned masters like Adam Johnson. This is a writer at the top of her game; but hopefully she鈥檚 only just getting started.鈥濃New York Times
鈥淲urzbacher dives into the lives of women in this brilliant collection, examining the ways they live and relate to each other while harboring their own secrets and feelings. Her lyrical prose and unflinchingly confrontational voice are powerful and captivating.鈥濃Booklist, starred review
鈥淔ull of strange ordinariness of relating, Happy Like This hits a nerve, vital and bewitching "because of its suggestion that there is no universal language, none at all, that even the language of desperation is particular and private.鈥濃Foreword Reviews, starred review
鈥淚 love these dark, lyrical, sinewy stories about women鈥檚 relationships with their bodies and with each other. It鈥檚 the sort of theme that could feel irritably well-trod, but that鈥檚 not the case here at all; these stories surprised me at every turn. And the writing is so gorgeous!鈥濃擟armen Maria Machado, judge, 2019 John Simmons Short Fiction Award
鈥淓qual parts graceful and astonishing, the stories in Ashley Wurzbacher鈥檚 debut collection do the brave work of building upon established traditions to create worlds and languages all their own. The result is a sweeping, insightful, and compassionate portrait not only of women鈥檚 lives, losses, and loves, but of their anger, its power, and the fierce sisterhood forged between those who express it.鈥濃擜llie Rowbottom, author, JELL-O Girls
鈥淩umor has it that Alice Munro in responding to the question 鈥楧o you consider yourself a feminist?鈥, replied thusly: 鈥業f you mean do I take the lives of women seriously, yes.鈥 Ashley Wurzbacher鈥檚 wonderful collection of stories made me think of that writer, and that answer, repeatedly. I love this book.鈥濃擜ntonya Nelson, author, Funny Once
鈥淚 fell in love with these stories from page one. Happy Like This is a funny, touching catalog of women鈥檚 generosity toward each other and themselves, of the secrets we need to keep, and the paths we must take in order to live more fully. A powerhouse of a collection.鈥濃擠anielle Lazarin, author, Back Talk
鈥淲hat a gorgeous, varied, brilliant, and accomplished collection of stories. On every page, moments of truth and beauty so perfectly, easily, and indelibly rendered in lines to make you catch your breath and wish to read them over and over. A must read!鈥濃擥regory Spatz, author, Inukshuk
National Book Foundation鈥檚 鈥5 Under 35鈥 honoree, 2019
