Julianna Baggott’s New Bridget Asher Novel ‘All of Us and Everything’ Makes People’s Best New Books

People Magazine



“I'll confess,” Julianna Baggott, W.H. Jenks Chair in Contemporary American Letters and visiting professor of English at the College of the Holy Cross said, “there's nothing quite like the moment when you take off the literary handcuffs and tear into writing story.” Baggott recently blogged about her forthcoming book due for release Nov. 24, “All of Us and Everything” (Bantam, 2015) written under her pen name Bridget Asher, making People Magazine’s list of Best New Books. “I loved writing about this odd family,” Baggott said. “…in particular about three sisters.”

“All of Us” follows the adult lives of the Rockwell women, Esme, Liv, and Ru and their mother Augusta whose eccentric upbringing impacted the sisters’ lives forever. Esme, Liv, and Ru grew up believing Augusta’s stories that their absent father was a spy. Drama emerges in the family when letters from the sisters’ father are discovered in the wreckage left by Hurricane Sandy.

People said “All of Us”: “Is an indulgent and lively comic novel about stormy women and the spy…who loved them.” In her blog Baggott comments that, “I was unrestrained while writing it with the hope that readers would feel unrestrained while reading it.”

Kirkus Reviews called the novel “An entertaining yet astute look at family, self, story, and connections.” New York Times bestselling author Kevin Wilson said of Baggott’s ability, “Bridget Asher, seemingly with the flicker of her wrist, brings forth four amazing, unique, altogether brilliant characters.”

Read ‘All of Us (& David Beckham) & Everything.’

More information

This “Holy Cross in the News” item by Emma Collins ’16.