Open Book

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Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Family Sagas that Rivet and Resonate

Leo Tolstoy famously said, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Open Book is proud to present acclaimed novelists Michelle Huneven and Claire Lombardo in a conversation about this universal trope: the love and loss, secrets and heartbreak, myth and mistakes that characterize our most intimate tribes – and the mothers at their heart.

Huneven’s Bug Hollow and Lombardo’s Same As It Ever Was span decades, and navigate troubled marriages, estrangement, encroaching friendships, sibling rivalry and resentment, and the difficulty of finding one’s place in the world. Come hear about their writing lives, how they shape their fictive worlds, and the challenges inherent in writing family sagas.

Michelle Huneven, a native of Altadena, is known for five enthralling novels, including Round Rock, Jamesland, Blame, Off Course, and Search. Her books have been New York Times Notable Books and finalists for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is the recipient of a Whiting Award for Fiction, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a James Beard Award, and a Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She teaches creative writing at UCLA.

Claire Lombardo’s focus is the family drama, explored in her two novels, Same As It Ever Was (named one of the Best Books of 2024 by the Washington Post, NPR, and People) and the New York Times bestselling The Most Fun We Ever Had, which was optioned for television by Reese Witherspoon. She lives in Iowa City, where she has taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and Grinnell College and works part-time as a bookseller at Prairie Lights Books.