Drinking Closer to Home: A Novel [Paperback]

“Riveting and startling….So raw and funny I wanted to read parts aloud to strangers.” —Dylan Landis, author ofNormal People Don't Live Like This

“Jessica Anya Blau…creates characters that have a lot more depth and more of a past than one often sees in fiction these days…. I found it impossible not to care about them—and equally impossible to forget them. Blau is a magnificent writer, and this is one special novel.” —Steve Yarbrough, author ofSafe from the Neighbors

From Jessica Anya Blau, critically-acclaimed author ofThe Summer of Naked Swim Parties, comes a new novel of California, growing up, and learning to love your insane family. Perfect for fans of Jess Walter, Kevin Wilson, and Michael Chabon,Drinking Closer to Homeis a poignant and funny exploration of one family’s over-the-top eccentricities—a book Ron Tanner calls “heartfelt and hilarious.”

They say you can never really go home again. Adult siblings Anna, Portia, and Emery are about to discover just how true that is.

At the end of the day, the Stein family is dysfunctional, foul-mouthed, appalling, loving and ridiculously endearing, thanks to Blaus hilarious rendition of their group dynamic. Soundtrack? Hotel California. Woody Allen directs.The domestic relationships . . . are brilliantly rendered, a contemporary California version of Philip Roth.An entertaining romp through one familys history.A light-hearted, enthralling read that enables us to laugh at our own less-than-perfect families.Blau writes funny, often heartbreaking, and always relatable anecdotes ... [Her] lifelike characters are such a joy to get to know that one feels sorry to leave them behind.From painful humor to poignant scene-setting, [Blau] takes no prisoners in her candid look at an unconventional clan.Jessica Blaus second novel is not only a wise and pitch-perfl³’