All Adults Here

Straub is a New York Times best-selling author whose novels explore themes of love, the passage of time, and the importance of family. Straub’s influences for All Adults Here can be seen through two distinct lenses: her independent bookstore and her relationship with her father, Peter Straub.

In the “Acknowledgements” section of All Adults Here, Straub honors the importance and challenges of independently owned businesses. She refers to her bookstore, Books Are Magic, in Brooklyn, New York, as a major influence for All Adults Here. Owning an independent bookstore is a formidable challenge. Straub’s business is in competition with enormous corporations such as Amazon, a conflict that parallels the dilemma Elliot Strick faces in All Adults Here. Ultimately, Straub’s bookstore is a testament to the power of community in support of books and independently owned businesses. She credits the community of Brooklyn for the success of her bookstore, an undertaking that she describes as akin to having a child. Straub’s own identity as a mother also influences this parallel. Like the adult characters in All Adults Here, Straub understands the pressures and complexities of parenthood, in the literal sense of having children and in the figurative sense of her bookstore.