And families with secrets don’t get to keep them forever. And it’s about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again, parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts, children grow but not always according to plan. Laurie Frankel's This Is How It Always Is is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude’s secret. They’re just not sure they’re ready to share that with the world. Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess. He’s five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. This is how children change…and then change the world. This is how a family lives happily ever after…until happily ever after becomes complicated.

This is how a family keeps a secret…and how that secret ends up keeping them.

Maria Semple, New York Times bestselling author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette Laurie Frankel has written one of those very rare, special novels that examines the way we livein our homes, in our families, in our bodieswith an astonishing balance of humor, complexity, and. “It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me think.” -Liane Moriarty, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Little Lies This Is How It Always Is sparkles with wit and wisdom. *Named one of the top 10 books of 2017 by People Magazine* The Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick

This is how it always is author