All New People

A stunning novel from the author of Bird by Bird: When a divorcée returns to her small California hometown, she encounters vivid memories of her eccentric family and coming-of-age in the 1960s.

With generosity, humor, and pathos, Anne Lamott takes on the barrage of dislocating changes that shook the Sixties. Leading us through the wake of these changes is Nanny Goodman, a girl living in Marin County, California. A half–adult child among often childish adults, Nanny grows up with two spectacularly odd parents: a writer father and a mother who is a constant source of material.

As she moves into her adolescence, so, it seems, does America. While grappling with her own coming–of–age, Nanny witnesses an entire culture's descent into drugs, the mass exodus of fathers from her town, and rapid real estate and technological development that foreshadow a drastically different future.

In All New People, Anne Lamott works a special magic, transforming failure into forgiveness and illuminating the power of love to redeem us.