This Beautiful Life: A Novel
&#8220;Riveting. . . . As much as this book fiercely inhabits our shared online reality, it operates most powerfully on a deeper level, posing an enduring question about American values.&#8221; (Maria Russo, New York Times Book Review)&#8220;This Beautiful Life is as much a bracing novel as a timely cautionary tale&#8230;. Schulman has managed to capture this bizarre of-the-moment tragedy in a novel that remains deeply humane and sensitive&#8230;. This Beautiful Life is a powerful story of a good family in crisis.&#8221; (Mary McGarry Morris, Washington Post)&#8220;Schulman&#8217;s topical, unsettling new novel [is] set in Manhattan&#8217;s world of private-school privilege but chillingly relatable for parents anywhere&#8230;. Raising tough questions about child rearing, morality and the way the Internet both frees and imprisons, Schulman&#8217;s story resonates.&#8221; (People (3 &#xBD; out of 4 stars))&#8220;A rich, engrossing, and surprisingly nuanced novel exploring timeless questions of guilt and responsiblity.&#8221; (O, The Oprah Magazine)&#8220;This Beautiful Lifeisn&#8217;t just an intimate look at family breaking down under intense pressure; it&#8217;s also a sharp and unsparing indictment of a culture in search of scapegoats. In this timely and provocative novel, Helen Schulman maps out the contours of a contemporary American nightmare.&#8221; (Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers and Little Children)&#8220;A gripping, potent, and blisteringly well-written story of family, dilemma, and consequence. While the setting is thoroughly modern, the drama feels as ancient and inevitable as a Greek myth. I read this book with white-knuckled urgency, and finished it in tears. Helen Schulman is an absolutely brilliant novelist.&#8221; (Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Committed and Eat, Pray, Love)&#8220;In the hands of a lesser writer, this might have been simply a book about a scandal; Helen Schulman, though, has a long enough view, and a large enough heart, to have found in that scandal&#8217;s outlines a mournful and affecting portrait of our brave new social world.&#8221; (Jonathan Dee, Author of The Privileges)&#8220;Helen Schulman&#8217;s trenchant social observations and precise, lucid writing are brought to bear on the timely story of a crisis in the life of the Bergamot family&#8230;. Schulman takes on a controversial topic with depth, evenhandedness, and warmth. Spare and focused, This Beautiful Life packs a wallop.&#8221; (Kate Christensen, author of The Epicure's Lament and The Great Man)&#8220;In another writer&#8217;s hands, it might come out as a cautionary tale, but Schulman is careful not to paint anyone as villain or victim.&#8221; (Hannah Gerson, New York Observer)&#8220;A harrowing and moving account of just how much twenty-first-century technology has magnified the scope of the kind of imbecilities in which teenagers excel. It&#8217;s poignant about the fragility of even those homes that are seemingly invulnerably insulated by privilege and caring and vigilant parents.&#8221; (Jim Shepard, author of Like You'd Understand, Anyway)&#8220;With psychological acuity and cinematic pacing, Helen Schulman takes a hypercontemporary nightmare&#8230;and parlays it into a wildly compelling novel about parenting, privilege, and the fragility of happiness&#8230;. This Beautiful Life is moving, disturbing, and grandly incisive.&#8221; (Jonathan Miles, author of Dear American Airlines)&#8220;Helen Schulman is one of the most gifted writers of her generation.&#8221; (Jennifer Egan, author of A Visit from the Good Squad)