What does it mean to grow up when the adults are just as lost?
Clodomiro has just won a robotics competition, but instead of feeling proud, all he can notice is what’s missing: someone to cheer for him, someone to pick him up. Between well-meaning lies, uncomfortable silences, and impossible excuses—like monkeys escaping from the zoo—this teenager navigates a life where no one seems to have time for him. His mother, always rushing. His father, absent and full of tall tales. His friends, a refuge that’s not always enough.
Through everyday episodes, online games, UFOs that may or may not have been real, and silences that hurt more than shouting, Clodomiro invites us to see the world with the blend of irony, tenderness, and clarity of someone beginning to understand that growing up isn’t a heroic journey, but a succession of small defeats, doubts, and discoveries.
“That’s How Life Was” is an intimate, funny, and moving novel about broken expectations, the fragility of family bonds, and the value of building friendships that ask for nothing in return.