A story about the life that emerges when the one you expected falls away.
A sudden death, a frayed relationship with her only child, and a series of unnerving panic attacks converge in Kate’s life just as the world around her spins into an uproar. It i[...]
At ERA rallies and in intimate consciousness-raising circles, women are speaking openly about selfhood, equality, desire, and even dominion over their own bodies. Drawn in almost a[...]
Married at eighteen out of necessity, she has spent decades defined by obligation—wife, mother, caretaker. Now newly widowed and untethered from those roles, she faces a question s[...]Unexpected is a novel about middle chapters—the messy, uncertain territory between the life you planned and the life you end up living.[...]At its heart
This is a book about the questions we avoid until we can't anymore. About the courage it takes to admit that the life you built—no matter how good it looked from the outside[...]
It's also, ultimately, a book about hope. Not the easy kind that promises everything will work out. But the harder kind—the hope that says even when things fall apart, somet[...]
From the essays
The themes in Unexpected are ones I've been exploring in my essays—the quiet shifts that reshape women's lives, the ga[...]
If you'd like a sense of the territory this novel inhabits, you might start here:
“I don’t know” is starting to feel like a poem to me
At a poetry workshop recently we were instructed to write "I don't know," at the top of our spiral notebooks and just start writing. It turns out I don't know so very many, many things. But pondering them told me something about what was occupying my thoughts, and maybe even what deserved more or less of my attention.
When to call it quits with a friend
Back in middle school we ended romantic relationships awkwardly and often through a third period. It’s unfortunate we didn’t practice having those tough conversations when we were young. Unlike acne and braces, the need to end relationships of all kinds with clarity and kindness persists well into adulthood.
Want to be friends . . . it'll take a while
Turns out making friends as an adult is a big lift. Research shows 50 hours is just a start. It takes 300 to make a really close friend. But worth it, right?
Be the first to know
I'll be sharing updates on Unexpected as the publication date approaches—including early glimpses, behind-the-scenes notes[...]
No spam, ever. Unsubscribe anytime. If a confirmation email doesn't arrive within a few minutes, please check your spam folder.