Episode # 12: "I Did It All In My Pajamas"
with Jean Hanff Korelitz and Emma Straub
On this episode, we're excited to bring you Jean Hanff Korelitz in conversation with Emma Straub.
Jean Hanff Korelitz is the New York Times bestselling author of nine novels including The Latecomer, The Plot, You Should Have Known (which aired on HBO as The Undoing, starring Nicole Kidman, and Hugh Grant) and Admission (adapted as a film in 2013 starring Tina Fey), The Devil and Webster, The White Rose, and Interference Powder, a novel for children. Her company BOOKTHEWRITER hosts Pop-Up Book Groups in which small groups of readers discuss new books with their authors.
Emma Straub is the New York Times-bestselling author of five novels - This Time Tomorrow, All Adults Here, The Vacationers, Modern Lovers, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures - and the short story collection Other People We Married. Her books have been published in more than 20 languages, and All Adults Here is currently in development as a television series. She and her husband own Books Are Magic, an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, New York.
These Manhattan natives share their love of all things New York (especially the Museum of Natural History), the pleasure of incorporating childhood nostalgia into their novels and how opening a bookstore may be harder than writing.
Read Along!
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Plot, Jean Hanff Korelitz’s The Latecomer is a layered and immersive literary novel about three siblings, desperate to escape one another, and the upending of their family by the late arrival of a fourth.
The Latecomer follows the story of the wealthy, New York City-based Oppenheimer family, from the first meeting of parents Salo and Johanna, under tragic circumstances, to their triplets born during the early days of IVF. As children, the three siblings – Harrison, Lewyn, and Sally – feel no strong familial bond and cannot wait to go their separate ways, even as their father becomes more distanced and their mother more desperate. When the triplets leave for college, Johanna, faced with being truly alone, makes the decision to have a fourth child. What role will the “latecomer” play in this fractured family?
A complex novel that builds slowly and deliberately, The Latecomer touches on the topics of grief and guilt, generational trauma, privilege and race, traditions and religion, and family dynamics. It is a profound and witty family story from an accomplished author, known for the depth of her character studies, expertly woven storylines, and plot twists.
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2022 by Harper’s Bazaar, Oprah Daily, Glamour, Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, Good Housekeeping, Parade, Bustle, Marie Claire, PopSugar, Thrillist, Lit Hub and more!
What if you could take a vacation to your past?
With her celebrated humor, insight, and heart, beloved New York Times bestseller Emma Straub offers her own twist on traditional time travel tropes, and a different kind of love story.
On the eve of her 40th birthday, Alice’s life isn’t terrible. She likes her job, even if it isn’t exactly the one she expected. She’s happy with her apartment, her romantic status, her independence, and she adores her lifelong best friend. But her father is ailing, and it feels to her as if something is missing. When she wakes up the next morning she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her 16th birthday. But it isn’t just her adolescent body that shocks her, or seeing her high school crush, it’s her dad: the vital, charming, 40-something version of her father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life and his, some past events take on new meaning. Is there anything that she would change if she could?
We are proudly supported by:
Desert Island Bookshelf
This episode's Independent Bookseller shout-out goes to:
The Book Club
What'd you think about the episode?
Have you read the books discussed in this episode?
What authors would you like to hear on future episodes?
Let's talk!