ALL THIS CAN BE TRUE

In Michalski’s novel, two women who’ve had relationships with the same man fall in love with each other.

Two very different women, Lacie and Quinn, are, unbeknownst to them, connected to each other by the same man. Lacie has been married to Derek for many years, and his serial infidelity has caused many problems in their marriage. (She doesn’t know all the details of his affairs, or the names of all the women he’s slept with.) After therapy and many rounds of conversation, Lacie has tried to convince herself that she’s happy, or at least happy enough. But now that her two daughters are out of the house, she’s starting to have thoughts about leaving Derek. Quinn is a guitarist who used to perform with a Riot Grrrl band called The Clit Girls (“I don’t really play those songs anymore”). She spent much of that time embroiled in fights with her manipulative girlfriend, who led the band. Quinn met Derek at a music festival, and the two of them had a one-night stand. Quinn got pregnant and gave birth to her beloved daughter, Liv. She never told Derek about Liv, not even when Liv got sick with Batten disease. Quinn finally breaks down and contacts Derek after Liv dies at the age of 9. Derek suffers a stroke and is put into a coma; Lacie and Quinn meet for the first time at the hospital. Lacie has no idea who Quinn is, but Quinn knows exactly who Lacie is. They’re immediately attracted to each other, but can Lacie admit what she’s feeling to herself? And what will happen when Quinn finally reveals what happened between her and Derek? This is a tenderhearted LGBTQ+ narrative that deals with many difficult topics with sensitivity and openness. It also contains a lot of lovely observations about the Riot Grrrl scene, and about what it means to be a queer woman in today’s America. The plot can sometimes veer toward the melodramatic, and the language is a bit stilted in places, but readers will get a lot out of this touching story.

A lovely novel about love, grief, and connection.