And Sometimes Why: A Novel [Paperback]

A smart, sharply observant, even gently funny (The Washington Post) debut novel of heartache and joy

Witty and surprising, Rebecca Johnson's first novel is about the unexpected links between one family and the world around them. Sophia and Darius have a well-worn marriage, two teenage daughters, and no foreseeable drama on the horizon. One morning, the two girls fight over the keys to the family car and set into motion an accident. The accident triggers a chain of events involving Harry, a still handsome B-list celebrity game-show host; Anton, a sexually repressed unemployed filmmaker; and Misty, who has reached month seven of what was supposed to be a six month campaign to make something of herself. Profoundly honest, this is a novel about the unpredictability of life, and the joy and heartache of how deeply one person's life can affect so many others. Johnson's prose is wonderful.
-The Washington Post

Wise and affectingly humane.
-Vogue

The powerful story and characters will stay with the reader long after the final page is turned.
-Booklist

INTRODUCTION
The McMartins’ last daily breakfast together is like any other. Teenage sisters Helen and Miranda bicker over who gets to use the family car, while their English professor father, Darius, attempts to defuse the situation with a duel of wits. The girls’ mother, Sophia, reflects on the comforts and disappointments of a twenty-two year marriage that has produced two children who are at once uniquely themselves and indisputably the product of the parents who raised them. Helen, vivacious and popular, has her mother’s looks and adventurous spirit, while willfully antisocial Miranda holds the world at bay with an erudite superiority inherited from her father. Now on lS)