Sarah Thankam Mathews’s All This Could Be Different was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2022, as well as appearing on a number of Best Books of the Year lists, including Time, NPR, Vogue, Slate, The Los Angeles Times, and more.
The Iron Book Discussion Group will dig in to this “dazzling” (according to Entertainment Weekly) novel in June:
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BOOK DESCRIPTION
Graduating into the long maw of an American recession, Sneha is one of the fortunate ones. She’s moved to Milwaukee for an entry-level corporate job that, grueling as it may be, is the key that unlocks every door: she can pick up the tab at dinner with her new friend Tig, get her college buddy Thom hired alongside her, and send money to her parents back in India. She begins dating women—soon developing a burning crush on Marina, a beguiling and beautiful dancer who always seems just out of reach.
But before long, trouble arrives. Painful secrets rear their heads; jobs go off the rails; evictions loom. Sneha struggles to be truly close and open with anybody, even as her friendships deepen, even as she throws herself headlong into a dizzying romance with Marina. It’s then that Tig begins to draw up a radical solution to their problems, hoping to save them all.
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Copies of All This Could Be Different can be picked up from the Book Discussion Shelf on our first floor.
An in-person discussion of All This Could Be Different will be held at the library on Tuesday, June 10, at 7:00 PM. No registration is required, so please join us if you’d like to be part of the discussion.
Published on May 23, 2025.
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