So Happy Together: A Novel

(Paperback)

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Description

For readers who liked:The Pull of the Moon and Until the Real Thing Comes Along, by Elizabeth Berg, and The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer. Large target market: There is still fascination with the 1960s, as the 75 pages worth of titles from or about this decade listed on Amazon indicate; women who came of age in this era and want to revisit it and younger women who are interested in what it was like to grow up during this upheaval in social norms are an ideal audience for this book. Timely themes: Years after the action in So Happy Together takes place, women are still wrestling with the conundrum of having it all: love, family, a fulfilling work life, and an authentic self.

Reviews

2022 American Writing Awards Finalist in Best New (Debut) Fiction and Fiction (Womens Fiction)
2022 Firebird Book Awards First Place Winner in Marriage
2022 Firebird Book Awards Third Place Winner in New Fiction
2022 Firebird Book Awards Third Place Winner in Relationships

Shepherd takes us on a literal ride into the not-so-distant past, remembering how nave we were before we understood there are things you just cant changeeven if youre destined, even if youre soulmates, even if youre willing to risk everything . . . The reader will ache at the forced (and quite salty) sass of the young narrator, desperate to show it doesnt hurt, and highly enjoy the ironic wit of the mature voice who knows better and goes for it all the same. A story for anyone who can relate to how we cling to a fantasy of the past to avoid committing to the present.
Rita Dragonette, author of The Fourteenth of September

Many of us waste years fantasizing about a lost love, but the feisty heroine in So Happy Together takes to the road to track him down. This compelling novel is about how a smart and lusty drama student in the tumultuous 60s discovers twenty years later that shes trapped in a failing marriage. Shepherds engaging characters make mistakes, hurt, and lash out, yet ultimately clean up the mess with kindness and humor. Their search for understanding is what ultimately sets them free.
Elizabeth Garber, author of Implosion: A Memoir of an Architects Daughter

Author Bio

Deborah K. Shepherd was born in Cambridge, MA and spent much of her early life in the New York area. Before retiring in 2014, she was a social worker with a primary focus on the prevention of domestic violence and sexual assault, and provision of victim services. During an earlier career as a reporter, she wrote for Show Business in New York City and for the Roe Jan Independent, a weekly newspaper in Columbia County, New York. She also freelanced as a travel writer. She graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan, and holds a BFA in drama from the University of Arizona and an MSW from the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service. Deborah lives with her husband and two rescue dogs on the coast of Maine, where she gardens, cooks, swims, reads, entertains her grandsons, tries to speak French, and blogs at www.deborahshepherdwrites.com and www.paleogram.com. She is currently at work on a memoir. She lives in Belfast, ME.