PBS Books Readers Club invites you for a conversation with the best-selling author of “Isola” and “Sam” for a special look into her newest novel, “This Is Not About Us.” Join us at 5 p.m. on May 27, 2026, for a delightful conversation with Allegra Goodman hosted by Lauren Smith and Heather-Marie Montilla.

“This Is Not About Us” opens as the youngest of the three Rubenstein sisters passes away, and a petty dispute at her funeral over an apple cake splits the remaining sisters apart. What follows is a family saga spanning three generations, unfolding life into vignettes that drop in on long marriages and divorces, teenage milestones and middle-age reckonings. Each chapter adds another layer to a family portrait that’s complicated, constantly shifting and never quite complete.

Witty, wise and emotional, this novel moves through the messy, tender rhythms of a modern Jewish American family, including sisters who irritate and sustain each other, parents who mean well but fall short and children who grow up and away. Goodman writes with clear-eyed warmth about the bonds we fracture and the ones we can’t quite let go, finding humor and heartbreak in equal measure.

Grab your copy of “This Is Not About Us,” and read along! Then join the PBS Books Readers Club at 5 p.m. on May 27, 2026, to hear from Allegra Goodman on how she approached writing such a wide cast of characters and the inspirations behind them.