A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself

A People Book of the Week  One of USA Today's Best Books of the Year So Far A New York Times Editors' Choice A Book Riot January 2021 Book Recommendation A Millions Most Anticipated Title of 2021   "Wise, bracingly honest...A reassuring reality check...Davies throws some new ingredients into the family casserole...Nameless characters can come across as coy, but here, anonymity adds a layer of intimacy. Davies’s characters could be anyone, even you...The all-access pass is exhilarating...The family does not live happily ever after. Instead, they find their footing in ritual and routine, in peaceful and predictable exhaustion, in the hardiest kind of love."  —Elisabeth Egan, New York Times Book Review   "Astute and heartbreaking but also witty."  —People, Book of the Week   "Gemlike...The heart of the novel, though, is a piercing depiction of a marriage under intense pressure – the fear for their child’s future, the struggle for intimacy, the “scorched whispers” the couple argues in. Resolution is important in novels, but it can be a cheat in novels about parenting. The anxiety might alleviate, Davies knows, but it never quite goes away."  —USA Today (3.5/4 stars)   "Short, concisely and poetically written."  —Good Morning America   "Davies treats twists of fate with clear-eyed realism, humor, and grace."  —The New Yorker   "There is nothing superfluous in these pages, and yet Davies, whose characters’ humor carries the reader through considerable agony, allows cheerfully for life’s banality...A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself is a novel about the comedy and travails of parenting a 'twice exceptional' child that earns its place on the shelf alongside the frank and sometimes acerbic memoirs of Rachel Cusk and Anne Enright."  —Claire Messud, Harper's   "[A] powerful account of fatherhood...At times, Davies’s autofiction has the easy cadence of a stand-up set...But this is a complicated story, told with fearless honesty. The prose is rueful, spare and matter-of-fact, but emotions churn beneath the clean surface. It can be very funny, but it can also stop you in your tracks."  —Guardian   "Piercing and expansive...A unique window into just how bewildering taking care of another human can be. Also of note is Davies’ stark and refreshingly realistic portrait of the couple’s marriage...A deftly written, bittersweet and thought-provoking book about the joys and sorrows of having kids (or not), staying married (and sometimes fantasizing about not) and ushering your own parents through old age."  —San Francisco Chronicle   "A candid look at fatherhood, the stresses a family undergoes when a child is born and difficult choices one must make in life, as well as the shame that can result...One can enjoy the raw, honest depictions, the intimate details, and the fact that the story moves forward despite minimal plotting."    —Seattle Times   "[Davies'] recollections fizz with tell-all voltage...Tender yet clear-eyed, this is a thoughtful, consistently intriguing book, covering a lot of ground in a short space."  —Observer   "Award-winning writer Peter Ho Davies turns his unflinching gaze on parenthood...Th —