You Could Be Happy Here: A Novel

by Erin Van Rheenen

Overview

How far would you go to find your true home? ​

Lucy—single, childless, in her thirties—studies insects and ecosystems, in part to make sense of human behavior. ​That hard-won insight is shattered when her mother dies prematurely, her sister claims the 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, Lucy heads south in search of this phantom father. 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 outsiders. ​

You Could be Happy Here is a story of identity, belonging, and of opening your heart to a deeper understanding of kinship and home. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781960573537
Publisher:	Sibylline Press
Publication date:	09/16/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

After earning a BA from UC Santa Cruz and a Masters from City University of New York, Erin Van Rheenen left the US to see the world. She ended up in Costa Rica, where she lived for several years, soaking up the green and researching her relocation guide, Living Abroad in Costa Rica and her children’s book, The Manatee’s Big Day.​ Her work has been anthologized and published in Bellevue Literary Review, Atlas Obscura, BBC Travel, Fiction, The Sun, and Best Women’s Travel Writing. ​For ten years, she was Senior Writer at The Exploratorium, a science museum. ​Erin lives in San Francisco.

Editorial Reviews

...Van Rheenen’s debut novel...never goes where you think it’s going, but always takes you someplace wonderful.” —Karen Joy Fowler, national bestselling author of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves and Booth

“Populated by a cast of colorful characters, and buoyed by the customs and culture of Costa Rica, You Could Be Happy Here is a wonderfully insightful story of one woman’s journey of discovery...an auspicious debut novel!” ​—Gail Tsukiyama, national bestselling author of The Samurai’s Garden, The Color of Air, and The Brightest Star​

“A surprising novel about family and what it means to belong. ​I found myself rooting for Lucy every step of the way.” —Julia Scheeres, NYT bestselling author of Jesus Land

“A brilliant debut novel that only a traveler could have written—a beautiful blend of travelers’ insights, natural history, and heartfelt truths about what it means to belong to a place—or have a place belong to you.” ​—Pat Murphy, Nebula-winning author of The Adventures of Mary Darling

“A young woman, a tropical paradise, and a past not quite become history—Erin Van Rheenen’s new novel is a pleasure to read, full of satisfying complexities.” ​—Mary Ellen Hannibal, award-winning science writer and author of Citizen Scientist and Spine of the Continent

“...You Could Be Happy Here vividly captures the tension of being a privileged foreigner in another country, as well as the profound understanding that we are all in this messy life together....Beautifully written and soul-searching.” ​—Sharman Apt Russell, author of An Obsession with Butterflies and What Walks This Way: Discovering the Wildlife Around Us Through Their Tracks and Signs ​

“With familial layers and a richness of place, You Could Be Happy Here encompasses the universal appeal of looking for home while stepping into the unknown. ​I was blown away by the beauty of the prose, as well as the wonder and pathos of the story.” ​—Nikki Nash, author of Collateral Stardust: Chasing Warren Beatty and Other Foolish Things

“...this novel bridges the geographic, emotional and cultural gaps the complex characters encounter as they strive to find themselves and examine the new and historic connections that will either sustain or destroy them.” ​—Polly Dugan, author of The House of Cavanaugh and The Sweetheart Deal

From the Publisher