You Could Be Happy Here: A Novel

This haunting story transports us to the wild, rocky coast of Central America—and into the heart of a woman searching for the father she never knew.

Lucy—single, childless, in her thirties—studies insects and ecosystems to try to make sense of human behavior. But she is mystified by a series of events that shatter her idea of who she is and where she belongs. Her mother dies prematurely, her sister claims the Northern California family home, and Lucy learns that her biological father is apparently a Costa Rican they knew when the family spent summers in the coastal village of Palmita. Reeling, disinherited, and recently demoted at work, Lucy heads south in search of this phantom father and the land he may have bequeathed her. But he is nowhere to be found, and none of the locals seem to remember her. The dreamy, off-grid paradise she recalls from childhood has become a hard-edged town leery of hotel-building, forest-razing outsiders. Is Lucy an interloper, too? Or can she rise to the challenge: rethink her place in the world, open her heart, and expand her notion of kinship and home?

About Erin Van Rheenen

Erin Van Rheenen, MA, writes fiction and nonfiction that explores family dynamics, cultural difference, and the power of place. Her work has been anthologized and published in Bellevue Literary Review, Atlas Obscura, BBC Travel, Fiction, The Sun, and Best Women’s Travel Writing. She won the Pirates Alley Faulkner Society prize for best novel in manuscript, judged by novelist Oscar Hijuelos. Her work has been supported by Cottages at Hedgebrook, Community of Writers, and Hippocamp.

You Could Be Happy Here is inspired by Erin’s connection to Latin America. Born in Oregon, schooled in Santa Cruz and New York City, her passion for place really took hold in the Southern reaches of the Americas. She learned Spanish as a child in Guatemala, lived for years as an adult in Ecuador and Mexico, and was married to a Mexico City artist. After they divorced, she moved to Costa Rica, where she lived and traveled by herself while researching her best-selling relocation guide, Living Abroad in Costa Rica (Avalon Travel Publishing). She has contributed to many travel and live-abroad guides, and has been interviewed on radio and television as an expert on Costa Rica and relocating abroad.

Praise for Erin Van Rheenen's You Could Be Happy Here: A Novel

“A brilliant debut, You Could Be Happy Here is engaging, touching, and sometimes wryly funny. A beautiful tale of personal discovery, blended with travelers’ insights and natural history tidbits that made me laugh out loud. But be warned: This book may change forever how you think about family and belonging.”

— —Pat Murphy, Nebula-winning author of The Falling Woman and Rachel in Love