A New York Times Notable Book of 2019 selection, a New York Times Editorsâ Choice book, and longlisted for the Story Prizeâfrom the bestselling, highly acclaimed National Book Award nominee, She Was Like That is a âpiercing, intimate, and exquisiteâ (Publishers Weekly) collection of new and selected stories that capture âthe joys and anxieties of motherhoodâ (Star Tribune, Minneapolis).
In these twelve deft, acutely funny, and often heartbreaking stories, âWalbert captures with an unusual combination of restraint and rhapsodyâ (The New York Times) the questions women ask themselves and the definitions assigned to them as wives, mothers, and daughters. Her characters are searchers, uneasy in one way or another. They yearn for connection.
In the riveting opening story âM&M World,â a woman is plunged into panic when she briefly loses one of her daughters at the vast and over-stimulating Times Square store. In âSlow the Heart,â a single mother tries to ease tension at the dinner table with Roses and Thorns, the game she knows the Obamas played in the White House. In âRadical Feminists,â a woman skating with her two children encounters the man who derailed her career years earlier. And in the poignant, âA Mother Is Someone Who Tells Jokes,â a mother reflects on the nursery school project that preceded her sonâs autism diagnosis. This is a deeply moving, resonant collection from a writer ârightly celebrated for her ability to capture the variety and vulnerability of womenâs lives with a combination of lyricism and brawnâ (NPR).