"An unpretentious and very funny book . A complex and highly polished work . Barbara Trapido has that rare ability to make her characters respond to small misfortunes and irritations exactly as people do." -- New York Times "A staggeringly competant first novel." -- Boston Globe "I've given . Brother of the More Famous Jack to dozens of people, and like me, they fall rapturously in love with Trapido's breezy, raunchy and unsentimental style." -- Maria Semple, The New York Times "Funny, charming, teeming with life, and real." -- Nick Hornby, Esquire "This is a first novel .

but if established writers could get this good on the seventh try, readers would be the richer for it. Lovely." -- USA Today "If you've been looking for a modern love story that shines with off-beat charm and sprightly intelligence--not to mention elegance of style--take heart. This brief account cannot do justice to the wry, civilized tone and understated wit that lights up Trapido's writing." -- San Francisco Chronicle "Why did it take me so long to discover the singular joys of Barbara Trapido's novels? Why, for so many years, had I missed these witty, soulful, heartbreaking, expansive, brilliant tales? What have I been wasting my time doing? Reading books that AREN'T perfect? Never again! Since finally discovering Trapido in 2012, I have become a literary evangelist on her behalf. On account of my badgering, all my friends now love her, too. I won't rest until everyone in America has read (and fallen in love with) this fabulous author." -- Elizabeth Gilbert.