We All Live Here

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and substance use.

Forty-two-year-old Lila Kennedy lives in an old house in London with her stepfather, Bill McKenzie, and two daughters, Celie and Violet. One day, she’s working on unclogging the drain when her agent, Anoushka, calls about her newest manuscript. Lila’s first book, The Rebuild, is about rebuilding a marriage, and she hasn’t had energy to write the “guide to a Happy Single Life” since she and her ex-husband, Dan, split up (4). Dan left Lila for another woman named Marja, with whom he was having an affair. Lila ends the call, promising Anoushka pages soon.

After updating Bill on the plumbing situation, she walks to Violet’s school to pick her up. Outside, she notices another mother named Phillipa exclaiming over Marja’s pregnancy news. Shocked and hurt, Lila pretends to be on a phone call to avoid interacting with them. Finally Violet emerges, and they head home.

Lila tries to dismiss her thoughts about Dan and his new life. He left her around the same time her mother, Francesca, was hit by a bus and killed.