This Close to Okay
A Novel

Quotes

"Leesa Cross-Smith is such a beguiling writer and her skills are on full display in So We Can Glow. These are stories about breathless love, lustful abandon, all that glitters, hot summers, cool pavement, sticky skin, beautifully beating hearts. There is such authenticity to these stories and nostalgia that is tempered with just enough of a clear-eyed understanding of the world as it is, not just how we hoped it might be. It's also refreshing to see a writer crafting stories that are so unapologetically for women, about women, a love letter to who we are, the best and worst of us, held high and true, so we can glow as brightly as we dare."—Roxane Gay, New York Times bestselling author

“This book hits the ground running. Cross-Smith writes tenderly about the trial and error of intimacy and draws you in with enormous warmth and control.”—Raven Leilani, New York Times bestselling author of Luster

"Leesa Cross-Smith writes the way many people wish they could: ferociously, tenderly, and with a tremendous amount of heart."—Kristen Arnett, New York Times bestselling author of Mostly Dead Things (on So We Can Glow)

"Leesa Cross-Smith is a consummate storyteller who uses her formidable talents to tell the oft-overlooked stories of people living in that great swath of place between the left and right coasts... Where she is most stunning is in the endings...creating crisp, evocative moments that will linger long after you've read this book's very last word."—Roxane Gay (praise for Every Kiss A War)

“Leesa Cross-Smith has written a book to help us through these bleak and confusing times. This Close to Okay is a story of loneliness and wrenching loss, perfectly counterbalanced by the compassion of strangers and the love of family. This book is a hand-knitted sweater in the middle of a cold winter night.”—Bryn Greenwood, New York Times bestselling author of The Reckless Oath We Made

"This Close to Okay is such a joy to read! It at once delights and moves, its sweetness and sass and sexiness balanced with deep questions about honesty, intimacy, and heartbreak. Leesa Cross-Smith is a confident storyteller and, in her hands, her characters come alive; they are fallible, charming, complicated, and--like all of us--aching for connection."
 —Edan Lepucki, New York Times author of California and Woman No. 17

"This Close to Okay is the kind of novel that allows the reader to slip into a world rich with both comforts and troubles. The story of Emmett and Tallie is delicious, romantic, cozy, and satisfying, and it's also mysterious, unstable, and loaded with loss. This book opens up hard emotions and truths, but it also offers moments of relief and attention to the sustaining pleasures of life."—Naima Coster, author of What's Mine and Yours and Halsey Street

"One of those rare feel-good novels that also crackles with wisdom, This Close to Okay introduces readers to two characters who will come to feel like cherished friends. . . Over the course of a single weekend, their many conversations on love, loss, grief, and joy coalesce into a primer on human goodness.”—Elle

“With an effortlessly Baldwinian style of misleading simplicity, Leesa Cross-Smith's beguiling prose lures readers in from the first moments. Reading Cross-Smith is like stepping into seemingly calm water, only to be swept away by the force of a story so immediate, and characters so intimate and bewitching, that you do not want to come up for air.”
 —Bethany C Morrow, author of Mem and A Song Below Water

“Another page-turner . . . A story about the power of vulnerability and connection, This Close to Okay is a moving reminder of the importance of authentic human relationships.”—Refinery29