Prettier if she Smiled More

Toni Jordan

Kylie Schnabel is having a terrible week. Her boyfriend, Colin, is ignoring her calls, the local pharmacy where she works is being hijacked by a global corporation, and she’s been landed with a dog-sitting job she never asked for.

Then, when her fiercely independent mother breaks an ankle and needs help, the task falls to Kylie to move in with Gloria, and she reluctantly packs her bags.

Back in her childhood home, things start to unravel: Gloria’s demands are impossible, opening the floodgates of a lifetime of resentment that Kylie feels from being considered the ‘sensible and reliable’ member of the family – the one nobody thinks is much fun.

This novel will make you laugh and cry with empathy. It asks the ultimate question: who are we without our family, and can we ever escape their influence on who we are destined to become?

‘I loved every page of this funny, warm, delightful novel!’

- Liane Moriarty, best-selling Australian author of Big Little Lies.

Told with great humour and pathos. It is a tonic and a delight’

- Pip Williams, author of The Dictionary of Lost Words

Sharply observed characters and comic set-pieces to make you laugh out loud. Great fun to read and casts a more mature and acerbic eye on modern masculinity’

- The Sydney Morning Herald

Author Website

Acquiring Publisher: Rebecca Saunders

Release: Mar-2023

ISBN: 9780733645143

RRP (AUD): $32.99

Pages: 336

Format: Paperback & ebook

Category: Fiction: General

Toni Jordan

Toni Jordan has worked as a molecular biologist, quality control chemist, TAB operator and door-to-door aluminium siding salesperson. She is the author of six novels including the international bestseller Addition, which was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Award, Nine Days, which was awarded Best Fiction at the 2012 Indie Awards and was named in Kirkus Review’s top 10 Historical Novels of 2013, and Our Tiny, Useless Hearts, which was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award. Toni has been published widely in newspapers and magazines.