Laurie Frankel, "This is How it Always is" (Flatiron Books, 2017)

New Books in Literature · Dec 10, 2018 · 38m

In her new novel This is How it Always is (Flatiron Books, 2017), Laurie Frankel tells the story of the Walsh-Adams family and how they grapple with the youngest child, the fifth son, who announces at age three that he wants to be a girl. While his four older brothers revel in typical boy behavior, Claude, who decides her name is now Poppy, wears dresses and purses to school. Local homophobia pushes the Walsh-Adams family to leave their big old farmhouse in Madison, Wi. for a smaller home in Seattle. There, they decide to keep Poppy’s trans status a family secret. When Poppy is outed, her…