This Beautiful Life (P.S.) - Softcover

"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's outlines a mournful and affecting portrait of our brave new social world."--Jonathan Dee, Author of The Privileges

"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."--Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Committed and Eat, Pray, Love

"A rich, engrossing, and surprisingly nuanced novel exploring timeless questions of guilt and responsiblity."--O, The Oprah Magazine

"With psychological acuity and cinematic pacing, Helen Schulman takes a hypercontemporary nightmare...and parlays it into a wildly compelling novel about parenting, privilege, and the fragility of happiness.... This Beautiful Life is moving, disturbing, and grandly incisive."--Jonathan Miles, author of Dear American Airlines

"In another writer's hands, it might come out as a cautionary tale, but Schulman is careful not to paint anyone as villain or victim."--Hannah Gerson, New York Observer

"Helen Schulman'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.... Schulman takes on a controversial topic with depth, evenhandedness, and warmth. Spare and focused, This Beautiful Life packs a wallop."--Kate Christensen, author of The Epicure's Lament and The Great Man

"This Beautiful Life is as much a bracing novel as a timely cautionary tale.... Schulman has managed to capture this bizarre of-the-moment tragedy in a novel that remains deeply humane and sensitive.... This Beautiful Life is a powerful story of a good family in crisis."--Mary McGarry Morris, Washington Post

"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's poignant about the fragility of even those homes that are seemingly invulnerably insulated by privilege and caring and vigilant parents."--Jim Shepard, author of Like You'd Understand, Anyway

"Helen Schulman is one of the most gifted writers of her generation."--Jennifer Egan, author of A Visit from the Good Squad

"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."--Maria Russo, New York Times Book Review

"ThisBeautiful Life is a gripping, potent and blisteringly well-written story offamily, dilemma, and consequence. . . . I read this book with white-knuckledurgency, and I finished it in tears. Helen Schulman is an absolutely brilliantnovelist." —Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love
 

Theevents of a single night shatter one family’s sense of security and identity inthis provocative and deeply affecting domestic drama from Helen Schulman, theacclaimed author of A Day at the Beach and Out of Time. In thetradition of Lionel Shriver, Sue Miller, and Laura Moriarty, Schulman crafts abrilliantly observed portrait of parenting and modern life, cunningly exploringour most deeply-held convictions and revealing the enduring strengths thatemerge in the face of crisis.