Maximum Shelf: HAPPINESS

opens in a new windowToday’s Maximum Shelf Awareness feature is HAPPINESS: The Crooked Little Road to Semi-Ever After by Heather Harpham.

opens in a new windowIn her debut memoir, award-winning playwright and performance artist Heather Harpham recounts her charming courtship with a New Yorker named Brian, and how it ends, full stop, when Heather becomes pregnant. Heather returns home to California to deliver their daughter alone, buoyed by family and friends. Mere hours after Gracie’s arrival, Heather’s first precious moments of happiness with her newborn are shattered when she learns her daughter has a rare blood condition that places her at high risk for brain damage or death. Brian reappears as Gracie’s condition grows dire; together Heather and Brian have to decide what they are willing to risk to ensure their girl sees adulthood.

“Harpham’s ability to capture an audience’s emotions takes center stage as a memoirist. Her deeply personal yet witty narrative style makes the reader feel instantly connected, as if Harpham is a close friend traveling a familiar ‘crooked little road to semi-ever after.’ Hers is a journey evoking a spectrum of emotions: hope, sadness, anger and, yes, happiness.” — Shelf Awareness

See the full summary, review and interview with Heather Harpham on Shelf-Awareness.com.

HAPPINESS will be available from Henry Holt & Company on August 1, 2017.