Happy Family by Tracy Barone One of these things is not like the other. That's how Cheri Matzner felt gr owing up in her adoptive family, and it's what continues to define her as s he tries to start a family of her own. Funny and fierce, desperate for conn ection yet pushing it away with both hands, she needs to jump-start a marri age in danger of flatlining and save her career from scandal. But Cheri is still contending with a complicated relationship with her parents-her aging Italian bombshell of a mother and a distant father who looms large, even i n death-unaware of the sacrifices they made to be together or of the diffic ult truths and lies in their marriage. When tragedy unravels Cheri's well-d esigned defenses, she is thrust into an odyssey of acceptance that brings h er full circle back to her dramatic origins. Sometimes it takes half a lifetime to come of age. To be able to glimpse our parents beyond their roles as our parents. To uncover the many versions of truth within our family stories and within our own. And to laugh at it all just a little bit sooner.