Synopses & Reviews
The characters in Happy Like This are smart girls and professional women — social scientists, linguists, speech therapists, plant physiologists, dancers — who search for happiness in roles and relationships that are often unscripted or unconventional. In the midst of their ambivalence about marriage, monogamy, and motherhood and their struggles to accept and love their bodies, they look to other women for solidarity, stability, and validation. Sometimes they find it; sometimes they don’t. Spanning a wide range of distinct perspectives, voices, styles, and settings, the ten shimmering stories in Happy Like This offer deeply felt, often humorous meditations on the complexity of choice and the ambiguity of happiness.
Review
"I love these dark, lyrical, sinewy stories about women's relationships with their bodies and with each other. It's the sort of theme that could feel irritably well-trod, but that's not the case here at all; these stories surprised me at every turn. And the writing is so gorgeous!" Carmen Maria Machado, judge, 2019 John Simmons Short Fiction Award
Review
"Wurzbacher deploys her encyclopedic command of various ideas, regions, professions and lexicons with the authority of seasoned masters like Adam Johnson. This is a writer at the top of her game; but hopefully she’s only just getting started." New York Times
Review
“Wurzbacher dives into the lives of women in this brilliant collection, examining the ways they live and relate to each other while harboring their own secrets and feelings. Her lyrical prose and unflinchingly confrontational voice are powerful and captivating.” Booklist (starred review)
About the Author
Ashley Wurzbacher’s writing has appeared in the Iowa Review, Kenyon Review Online, Prairie Schooner, Cincinnati Review, Colorado Review, Gettysburg Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama, and teaches creative writing at the University of Montevallo.