All this could be different by Sarah Thankam Mathews

Last night I read All This Could Be Different from cover to cover. The backstory is important (not cosmically but to this rec).

For the past few years, I’ve been very picky about novels and gravitate instead towards non-fiction or theory. I’d reach the point where I assumed most novels would sadly end up in the discard pile, unread. But I missed the days when I would be engulfed in a story with ease.

A friend and I have a beloved ritual: walk-to-the-library-and-impulse-buy. She is smart, kind, and reads piles of novels with untarnished pleasure. Usually my friend recommends five for more books and I try in good faith but finish none of them. I was starting to feel a creeping shame about my inability to find a novel I enjoyed.

On our last library book binge, she recommended All This Could Be Different. I put the bright hardcover with a big font in the pile in my arms, inwardly and sadly assuming it would end up in the stack of rejects. But I couldn’t put it down!

Why?

Maybe it’s the yummy prose. Or the fact that I found my legs in Milwaukee and intimately recognize all of the places. And that I have some similar echos of trauma rippling through my bones while being lifted up by the beautiful depths of friendship. And mirrored in my life are also class struggles, housing precarity, and queer experience. How harsh it is to be car-less and broke in cold Midwestern cities. But honestly, I think most readers can find some resonance in this book whether it mirrors aspects of their lives or not. Better than a beach read but could be read at the beach in one sitting.

Here’s an interview with the author (free preview + additional context). Might be worth a try if you’re struggling to find a novel that captures your attention for long enough to become engrossed and swept away.