Better Days

Twenty years ago, Grace only wanted to be with Trent—a boy with a guitar and a lot of promises. Her mother, Dorothy, wanted her daughter to fulfil her potential. In a fit of fury and heartbreak, Grace boards a plane to London where she builds a dazzling career in the music industry, marries Ed who would do anything for her, and has two children (one who might be a sociopath, but the other seems fine).

That glamorous lifestyle is a distant memory as Grace drags her kids and a particularly irritating dachshund back to the Blue Mountains, where Dorothy is waiting with a roast and inevitable questions about why Ed is no longer in the—seemingly perfect—picture. On a McDonald's pitstop, Grace bumps into a ghost from the past... Trent.

Better Days is a reflective, funny and acutely observed novel that blends coming of age story, backstage music industry satire, romance, and character-driven domestic drama. The Sydney Morning Herald

I loved this book. I inhaled it. Warm, familiar and mesmerising. I will think about Better Days for many years to come. Zorn's writing is masterful, expanding our understanding of what it means to be a mother and what it means to be a daughter. I want more from her, immediately. If you're in a reading rut, this will pull you out of it. – Jessie Stephens, author of Something Bad is Going to Happen

Claire Zorn writes beautifully, crisply and with gentle wisdom and humour about how our past selves and loves are folded into the person we become. – Jaclyn Moriarty, author of The Impossible Secret of Lillian Velvet

A thoroughly entertaining and absorbing read. Unflinching in its detail, yet compassionate in its telling. An expertly observed story of friendship, fortune, love, obligation, choice, consequence, possibility, and song. – Clare Bowditch, musician and author of Your Own Kind of Girl

I was engrossed in Better Days from the very beginning, absorbed in the vivid world and characters Claire Zorn has so artfully built. Zorn is a masterful storyteller, making it impossible not to fall into her pages and fight to stay there. This is a book built on the cliffhangers of a familiar life—an unresolved first love, a complicated marriage, and a family learning to understand each other. Better Days is spellbinding, authentic and unforgettable. – Clare Stephens

A gem of a novel that lingers in your mind, leaving you thinking about its characters and eager to return to their world. Better Days sensitively delves into themes of identity in work, toxic relationships, postpartum depression, and the tension between the lives we imagine for ourselves and the realities we face. Through humorous writing and compelling dialogue, Zorn explores these subjects with nuance and empathy. Perfect for readers of Taylor Jenkins Reid, Genevieve Novak and Natalie Sue's I Hope This Finds You Well. – Australian Bookseller & Publisher

I really enjoyed this ... if you're a fan of Taylor Jenkins Reid or Sally Rooney, highly recommend. – Shameless Bookclub, 4/5 stars