All This Can Be True
Published on 17. July 2025
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-1-68442-608-9 (ISBN)
Description
For fans of Modern Lovers and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo comes a tender queer romance about one woman's rediscovery of choice, hope, and wild love in the wake of her husband's coma.
When Lacie Johnson's husband, Derek, suffers a stroke at forty-seven and falls into a coma, her plans come to a screeching halt-asking Derek for a divorce, going back to school to get her master's, and starting over as a single woman now that their children have grown up. But what begins as a disaster brings an unexpected blessing in the form of Quinn, a kind stranger whom Lacie meets in the halls of the hospital.
This is just a stop-over for Quinn, who is traveling up to the British Columbia coast to live in a co-op of grief survivors on a remote island after the loss of her young daughter. She's also the former singer of a post-riot grrrl band who fled the group and the public eye more than fifteen years ago for reasons unknown. Lacie thinks she's discovered in Quinn the life and the person she's always wanted. But Quinn harbors a secret that connects her to Derek. And if Derek wakes up, Quinn must come clean and risk destroying her growing relationship with Lacie.
Told in alternating points of view, All This Can Be True follows Lacie and Quinn as they make the journey to each other-and then grapple with the fallout.
When Lacie Johnson's husband, Derek, suffers a stroke at forty-seven and falls into a coma, her plans come to a screeching halt-asking Derek for a divorce, going back to school to get her master's, and starting over as a single woman now that their children have grown up. But what begins as a disaster brings an unexpected blessing in the form of Quinn, a kind stranger whom Lacie meets in the halls of the hospital.
This is just a stop-over for Quinn, who is traveling up to the British Columbia coast to live in a co-op of grief survivors on a remote island after the loss of her young daughter. She's also the former singer of a post-riot grrrl band who fled the group and the public eye more than fifteen years ago for reasons unknown. Lacie thinks she's discovered in Quinn the life and the person she's always wanted. But Quinn harbors a secret that connects her to Derek. And if Derek wakes up, Quinn must come clean and risk destroying her growing relationship with Lacie.
Told in alternating points of view, All This Can Be True follows Lacie and Quinn as they make the journey to each other-and then grapple with the fallout.
Reviews / Votes
"A poignant drama of self-denial and loss, of false starts and dashed hopes, and coming into one's own in spite of it all... A story of this sort, a coming-of-age for (very) late bloomers, is rare and sorely needed. All This Can Be True is realist literary fiction that packs a strong emotional punch." -Independent Book Review"As grief, romance, and secrets blend together in complex ways in [All This Can Be True], the prose remains accessible, with equal weight given to conversations and descriptive narration." -Foreword Reviews
"Achingly good! Jen Michalski is a writer of intelligence, heart, and endless talent, and All This Can Be True just might be her best yet. Emotionally powerful, perfectly paced, and beautifully written, you won't be able to put this book down. Bravo!" -Matthew Norman, author of Charm City Rocks
"When Lacie Johnson's husband Derek, falls ill, she is faced with the choice to return to the status quo of her unsatisfying marriage, or risk losing everything for the chance to finally live an authentic life. All This Can Be True is a profoundly moving story about the tangled web of intimate relationships, the paradoxical power of secrets to both destroy and unite a family, and the hard-earned rewards of stepping out of the darkness and into the light of one's own truth. You will savor this richly layered novel, from the first page to the last." -Sandra A. Miller, author of Wednesdays at One
"Jen Michalski has written a beautiful story about yearning, secrets, and the struggle to find happiness in the face of loss. I was rooting for Lacie and Quinn from the gripping opening chapter to the immensely satisfying ending. A moving, immersive novel." -Jane Delury, author of Hedge and The Balcony
"In All This Can Be True, Jen Michalski offers a compassionate, vital narrative about the second chances that can only arise from making peace with life's contradictions and mourning our most excruciating losses. This is beautiful writing, lit with grace. You won't want to put this novel down." -Michelle Brafman, author of Swimming with Ghosts and Washing the Dead
"Jen Michalski stuns in All This Can Be True. This book is a thoughtful, journey story with spilled secrets, poignant grief, and, perhaps what our world needs most right now, the kindness of strangers. You'll fly through these pages and wonder what risks you might be willing to take to live more deeply." -Melissa Scholes Young, author of Flood and The Hive
"Poignant as it is sexy, All This Can Be True is a can't-look-away tale of love lost, love kept, and love worth pursuing." -Cat Shook, author of If We're Being Honest
"All This Can Be True is a very human story, and so beautifully told that I relished the prose on the page, as well as what Michalski depicted: the people we play, the love we feel, and the startling wild that makes us gasp out loud, in every life." -Kristin McCloy, author of Velocity, Some Girls, and Hollywood Savage
"In Jen Michalski's engrossing new novel, All This Can Be True, two women meet at a crossroads of grief and regret. It is gorgeously sapphic and queer, in its centering of women, its sexual fluidity, and its emotionally mature, compassionate point of view. Michalski is an enviably skilled author who knows that contradictory truths coexist, and we must face our own stories to rewrite them. I will recommend this book to every woman I know." -Susan Rukeyser, author of The Worst Kind of Girl
More details
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Paducah, KY
United States
Edition type
New edition
Product notice
With printed dust jacket
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
544 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-68442-608-9 (9781684426089)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Jen Michalski is the author of three novels, three short story collections, and a couplet of novellas. Her latest collection of fiction, The Company of Strangers, was an Electric Literature's "Small Press Books You Should Be Reading This Summer" and a 2023 Baltimore Magazine's Best of Baltimore winner. Her last novel, You'll Be Fine, was a 2021 Buzzfeed "Best Small Press Book," a 2022 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist, and was selected as one of the "Best Books We Read This Year" by the Independent Press Review. She's the editor of the weekly online literary magazine jmww and currently lives in Southern California, although she will always be a Baltimore girl at heart. Visit her at jenmichalski.com.