If I Knew You Were Going to Be This Beautiful, I Never Would Have Let You Go

For fans of PamHouston’s Cowboys Are My Weakness—a novel in stories about a young womanand her town in the early 1970s

It is the summer of 1972, and Katie has just turnedeighteen. Katie and her town, Elephant Beach, are both on the verge: Katie ofadulthood, Elephant Beach of gentrification—but not yet. Elephant Beach isstill gritty, working-class, close-knit. And Katie spends her time smoking anddrinking with her friends, dreaming about a boy just back from Vietnam who’sstill fighting a battle Katie can’t understand.

Impeccably crafted and hugely affectionate, this novel instories is a vivid portrait of a place whose conflicts—between mothers anddaughters, men and women, haves and have-nots—reverberate to our own time.