Still True

This story emphasizes the inner wilderness—those places in ourselves where we are sometimes afraid to go.

We first meet the main character, Lib Hart, as she runs barefoot in a street, her silver hair trailing out, trying to outpace her shameful past. I love how Lib is so fiercely independent—she’s living in her own house despite being married for nearly three decades. I related to Claire Taylor’s struggle, a young mother trying to balance the love she has for her son with the love she once had for a journalism career. The plot deftly leads Claire to reckon with the… show more.

This is a book that made me fall in love with its rich and layered characters from page one. I grieved for days after I finished reading because I knew I would miss Lib, Jack, and all the rest so much.

I’ve never read a book more than once (because there are so many good ones still waiting to be discovered!), but this is one I just might return to (especially because the audiobook just came out!)

I also loved that Ginsberg’s two main protagonists were older adults. You see that so rarely, and I was tickled by the representation… show more.

Still True is an intimate novel that beautifully depicts the complex web of relationships in a small community.

It has many of the things I love best in fiction: a multigenerational cast of characters, a richly realized setting replete with unforgettable details, and deep empathy from the author. Painful things happen in this book, people hurt each other, and yet there is no villain, only the heart-aching reality of being imperfect humans in a world.

Ginsberg’s writing is lush and gorgeous, and I’m never going to forget the image of Lib running through a rainstorm in her nightgown—independent, fierce, and… show more.

I know the characters in Still True so intimately now that I would recognize them if I passed them on the street.

The magic of literary fiction is that authors can explore whatever part of the story they want without having to conform to genre expectations. It’s relationships that Ginsberg explores in this beautifully written novel. When you spend your life with another person, you get to know them intimately. But there are secrets within all of us, even those we know the best.

This is a novel about personal struggles, truth, secrets, and all the ways there are to… show more.