Imagine Your Life Like This
Stories
University of Wisconsin Press
Order from Bookshop | Barnes & Noble | Amazon | IndieBound
Milwaukee Magazine: "Four Books by Wisconsin-Connected Authors"
Imagine Your Life Like This on IndyStar's Summer Reading List: 8 New Books by Indiana Authors to Bring to Your Book Club
Imagine Your Life Like This (and story "Nothing and Nobody") recommended by Reunions Magazine
Praise for Imagine Your Life Like This
“Open this book and you’ll want to stay forever in Sarah Layden’s imagined world. Appealing characters with interesting conundrums act right up to the limits of possibility. Layden has an ear for the absurdity in fraught moments that turn out to plumb depths. These stories can bring you to tears even as you laugh out loud.”—Sharon Solwitz, author of Once, in Lourdes
“Well-written, varied, and intriguing, these stories are original and will stay with me for a long time.”—Kelly Fordon, author of I Have the Answer
“Sarah Layden writes about loneliness and disconnection with authority and beauty. Her characters are often flawed people in the midst of difficult circumstances whose stories unravel in surprising ways. She is a writer to watch.”—Marian Crotty, author of What Counts as Love
“The stories in Imagine Your Life Like This are unforgettable, with characters deftly portrayed, sometimes with a single memorable line. They have outsize vices, married men, and cookie binging. They lie, they steal, they act on violent impulses, yet I loved them and longed for redemption for each and every one. You want to believe that light boxes might solve their north-country-long-winter problems, but they know deep down that’s not true. I particularly connected with the sardonic, vulnerable women. They hide from the truth for a while, but inevitably truth is as necessary to them as a good meal, a strong drink. Brava, Sarah Layden!”—Patricia Henley, author of Other Heartbreaks and Hummingbird House
“A great collection of short stories can make you feel as though the writer is taking you on a tour of a specific place and time, like a novel, while focusing on the many individual lives that make up the whole. Imagine Your Life Like This is one of those books: a wise and deeply satisfying collection that illuminates the courage and humor of ordinary people in a place where a mountain of broken glass in the moonlight can be more beautiful than Christmas lights, and a yearbook photo can illuminate the kindness that saved your life. I loved these stories. I was sorry when one ended but always, and immediately, drawn in by the next.”—Susan Neville, author of The Town of Whispering Dolls
“Layden’s vividly-drawn characters struggle to define themselves in relation to who they used to be, who they want to be, and who others imagine them to be. In the midst of their various crises, they behave badly, make mistakes, and want what they can’t have, and yet in spite of—or maybe because of—their fallibility, they remain sympathetic and lovable. Imagine Your Life Like This is a crisp, compassionate, and moving examination of the difficulty of seeing ourselves clearly and the pain of being seen by others in ways we can’t control.”—Ashley Wurzbacher, author of Happy Like This
Stories
University of Wisconsin Press
Order from Bookshop | Barnes & Noble | Amazon | IndieBound
Milwaukee Magazine: "Four Books by Wisconsin-Connected Authors"
Imagine Your Life Like This on IndyStar's Summer Reading List: 8 New Books by Indiana Authors to Bring to Your Book Club
Imagine Your Life Like This (and story "Nothing and Nobody") recommended by Reunions Magazine
Praise for Imagine Your Life Like This
“Open this book and you’ll want to stay forever in Sarah Layden’s imagined world. Appealing characters with interesting conundrums act right up to the limits of possibility. Layden has an ear for the absurdity in fraught moments that turn out to plumb depths. These stories can bring you to tears even as you laugh out loud.”—Sharon Solwitz, author of Once, in Lourdes
“Well-written, varied, and intriguing, these stories are original and will stay with me for a long time.”—Kelly Fordon, author of I Have the Answer
“Sarah Layden writes about loneliness and disconnection with authority and beauty. Her characters are often flawed people in the midst of difficult circumstances whose stories unravel in surprising ways. She is a writer to watch.”—Marian Crotty, author of What Counts as Love
“The stories in Imagine Your Life Like This are unforgettable, with characters deftly portrayed, sometimes with a single memorable line. They have outsize vices, married men, and cookie binging. They lie, they steal, they act on violent impulses, yet I loved them and longed for redemption for each and every one. You want to believe that light boxes might solve their north-country-long-winter problems, but they know deep down that’s not true. I particularly connected with the sardonic, vulnerable women. They hide from the truth for a while, but inevitably truth is as necessary to them as a good meal, a strong drink. Brava, Sarah Layden!”—Patricia Henley, author of Other Heartbreaks and Hummingbird House
“A great collection of short stories can make you feel as though the writer is taking you on a tour of a specific place and time, like a novel, while focusing on the many individual lives that make up the whole. Imagine Your Life Like This is one of those books: a wise and deeply satisfying collection that illuminates the courage and humor of ordinary people in a place where a mountain of broken glass in the moonlight can be more beautiful than Christmas lights, and a yearbook photo can illuminate the kindness that saved your life. I loved these stories. I was sorry when one ended but always, and immediately, drawn in by the next.”—Susan Neville, author of The Town of Whispering Dolls
“Layden’s vividly-drawn characters struggle to define themselves in relation to who they used to be, who they want to be, and who others imagine them to be. In the midst of their various crises, they behave badly, make mistakes, and want what they can’t have, and yet in spite of—or maybe because of—their fallibility, they remain sympathetic and lovable. Imagine Your Life Like This is a crisp, compassionate, and moving examination of the difficulty of seeing ourselves clearly and the pain of being seen by others in ways we can’t control.”—Ashley Wurzbacher, author of Happy Like This