Definitely Better Now
A Novel
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- ¥1,700
Publisher Description
A touching and deeply funny debut about starting over sober only to discover life’s biggest messes are still waiting right where you left them.
The very last person anyone should worry about is Emma. Yes, hi, she’s an alcoholic. But she’s officially been sober for one entire year. That’s twelve months of better health. Fifty-two whole weeks of focusing on nothing but her nine-to-five office job, group meetings, and avoiding the kind of bad decisions that previously left her awash in shame and regret. It’s also been 365 days of not dating. And with her new dating profile, Emma, 26, of New York is ready to put herself back out there.
Except—was dating always this complicated? And did Emma’s mother really have to choose now to move in with her new boyfriend? Being assigned to plan her office’s holiday party feels like icing on the suddenly very overwhelming cake until her estranged father reappears with devastating news. Icing, meet cherry on top. But then there’s Ben, the charming IT guy who, despite Emma’s awkwardness and shortcomings, seems to maybe actually get her? Sobriety is turning out to be far from the flawless future Emma had once envisioned for herself, but as she allows herself to open up to Ben and confront difficult past relationships, she’s beginning to realize that taking things one day at a time might just be the perfectly imperfect path she’s meant to be on.
Bittersweet and darkly hilarious, Ava Robinson’s debut novel about navigating sobriety and complicated family dynamics is witty, heartbreaking, and profoundly relatable.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Robinson debuts with an appealing chronicle of a 20-something woman as she enters her second year of sobriety. Though Emma Finley still struggles with feelings of self-hatred, she takes tentative steps to reveal her true self to Ben Nowak, the cute IT director at her Manhattan office, where she works in marketing. After she fumbles her first one-on-one conversation with Ben, the pair end up spending time together planning the office holiday party. Rumors fly about them, even as they remain friends and Emma tries to guard her privacy. Tensions arise when Emma's alcoholic father, Robert, visits out of the blue, leading her to suspect there's something he's not telling her. After Robert leaves, Emma learns he's dying of liver cancer, and the stress causes her to undermine her burgeoning connection with Ben. Robinson offers a detailed and convincing look at Emma's recovery as she attempts to overcome her tendency to self-sabotage and worries she'll scare off Ben with her grief and then relapse. There's raw honesty on every page, and the narrative ends with a moment of well-earned hope. Readers will find much to like.
