Liz Alterman
Writer, Editor, Storyteller
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Available June 11, 2024
The last person Liz Alterman expects to hear from during her Thanksgiving prep is her husband, Rich. He never calls from his job at a busy Manhattan newsroom. And he never will again, because he's just been laid off. Two months later, Liz is downsized, too.
At first, Rich is enchanted with his new leisurely lifestyle. But when he's still unemployed six months later, his euphoric mood devolves into depression and despair. It falls to Liz to figure out how to support their family of five and keep up appearances in their well-to-do suburb, where even nannies drive the latest model Lexus.
Sad Sacked blends the wit of Nora Ephron’s Heartburn with the madcap hilarity of Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette to expose the pressure on women to put on a happy face even as their world falls apart. In Liz Alterman’s gifted hands, we laugh until we cry about what happens when the bottom drops out.
Praise for The Perfect Neighborhood
“No neighborhood is perfect, but Oak Hill has more secrets than most. When a young boy goes missing, four women’s lives are sent spiraling: the babysitter who was late to pick him up, his mother, a neighbor and a woman who escaped Oak Hill only months ago. Suspicions arise, and everyone’s a suspect. And then another child goes missing … Can they figure out who is responsible before it’s too late? Alterman deftly uses alternating perspectives to show us the building tensions, leading to one surprising twist after another. I couldn’t put this down.”
—Catherine McKenzie, USA Today bestselling author of Please Join Us and Fractured
“In theory, The Perfect Neighborhood is the ideal place to raise a family. In reality, it’s disturbing and completely riveting. Inside every house is another fascinating character, another lie, another betrayal. Reading this book made me feel like I lived in Oak Hill, and I refused to leave until every secret was uncovered.”
—Samantha Downing, internationally bestselling author of My Lovely Wife and For Your Own Good
“Big Little Lies meets Everything I Never Told You in this wholly propulsive and utterly enthralling neighborhood suspense. With razor-sharp commentary and biting humor, I simultaneously howled with laughter one minute while tearing through the pages, racing toward the entirely shocking conclusion. Liz Alterman is a masterful storyteller and The Perfect Neighborhood is a devour-in-one-sitting read.”
—May Cobb, author of The Hunting Wives
Publisher's Summary:
When Tess Porter agrees to pick up her boyfriend’s college pal at the airport on a snowy December night, she has no idea she’s about to embark on the most dangerous ride of her life.
Two days later, the 17-year-old wakes up in a hospital with broken bones, unable to remember how she got there. Her parents are acting strange, and neither James, her boyfriend, nor her best friend, Izzy, has visited.
As she struggles to physically recover, Tess wrestles with haunting questions: What happened? Will her memory ever return? And what if she’s better off not recalling any of it?
Sad Sacked
Listening Sample
"I didn't realize how much we needed a new Erma Bombeck to report from the tense bowels of modern suburbia. This book is a sweaty, funny examination into suburban marriage, motherhood, social status and all the other reasons I left New Jersey." - Joel Stein, author of In Defense of Elitism: Why I’m Better Than You and You Are Better than Someone Who Didn’t Buy This Book
Humor + Essays
McSweeney’s
The New York Times
Jane Friedman.com
Jellyfish Review
Next Avenue
Anthology
Contact
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