The Good Life - by Susan Kietzman (Paperback)

About the Book

In a warm, thought-provoking debut novel of women's fiction, Kietzman explores the shifting relationships among parents and children, and between the surface trappings that symbolize success and the real values that give meaning to lives.

Book Synopsis

Between workouts, charity events, and shopping, Ann Barons keeps her days as full as her walk-in closets. She shares an immaculate house with her CEO husband, Mike, and their two teenagers, Nate and Lauren. It's a luxurious life, far from her homespun childhood on a farm in eastern Pennsylvania...which is why Ann is wary when her elderly parents ask to move in temporarily.

Ann prepares in the way she knows best-hiring decorators and employing a full-time nurse for her dementia-stricken father. But nothing can prepare her for the transformations ahead. Soon, her mother Eileen is popping in to prepare soups and roasts in Ann's underused kitchen, while the usually surly Nate forms an alliance with his ailing grandfather. Lauren blossoms under Eileen's guidance, and even workaholic Mike finds time to attend high-school football games. But it's Ann who must make the biggest leap, and confront the choices and values that have kept her floating on life's surface for so long.

Timely, poignant, and wise, The Good Life is a deeply satisfying and beautifully written story about the complex relationships between parents and children-and the gap that often lies between what we seek, and what will truly make us whole.

"The moving story of a family's rebirth through the simple but profound acts of daily kindness and sacrifice." -Holly Chamberlin, author of Last Summer

About the Author

Susan Kietzman writes contemporary American fiction. Her protagonists face every day challenges and issues, and make decisions that affect the direction and quality of their lives. Before dedicating all her writing time to fiction, she wrote in several other capacities - as newspaper reporter, corporate client wordsmith, and museum fundraiser. She also taught English and public speaking at two community colleges. It Started in June is her fifth novel. Her previous novels are Every Other Wednesday, The Summer Cottage, A Changing Marriage, and The Good Life. Please visit her online at www.SusanKietzman.com.