Critical Praise

“With prose that flows so naturally it needs no fancy dressing, third-time novelist Kline develops an inventive stock of characters in Angela’s new orbit and endows them with dialogue so natural that readers will at times feel like cutting in…Kline weaves an unassumingly beautiful story of human relationships and self-discovery. Her knack for storytelling makes this the ideal page-turning light read, with a tremendous payoff.”

—People

“Angela Russo is the classic New York refugee: a perpetual ‘single girl’ whose job in life has hit the dead end without a cul-de-sac. Fleeing to Maine on the strength of an ideal, Angela realizes that changing her surroundings has brought her face-to-face with her own worst enemy: herself. In THE WAY LIFE SHOULD BE, Christina Baker Kline proves to us once again that she is not only a deft and snappy writer, but a true cartographer of the human heart.”

—Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN and STILL SUMMER

“Warm, witty and wise, THE WAY LIFE SHOULD BE is a glimpse into the heart of a woman who takes the kind of leap of faith that most of us only dream of. Christina Baker Kline has written a book about love and disappointment and risk and risotto, utterly appealing on every level.”

—Lauren Fox, author of STILL LIFE WITH HUSBAND