In conversation with William Landay, moderated by Carol Fitzgerald
12:10 – 1:00 at Church of the Redeemer
About the author
Megan Abbott is the bestselling and award-winning author of 11 novels, including Give Me Your Hand, You Will Know Me, The Fever, Dare Me, and The End of Everything. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, the Guardian, and the Believer. Her most recent novel, The Turnout, was a New York Times bestseller, a Read with Jenna book club pick, and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize winner, also earning her finalist recognitions for the International Thriller Writers Award and the Joyce Carol Oates Prize. It has been optioned for television by the producer of Sharp Objects. Abbott is the co-creator and executive producer of USA’s adaptation of Dare Me and was a staff writer on HBO’s The Deuce. She received her Ph.D. in literature from New York University and lives in New York City.
MFOB featured book: Beware the Woman
In Beware the Woman, Jacy is newly married with a baby on the way and thought she had everything she could ask for, and that nothing could go wrong. She and her husband, Jed, embark on their first road trip to visit his father, Dr. Ash, in Michigan’s far-flung Upper Peninsula. The moment they arrive in the cozy cottage in the woods, Jacy feels bathed in love by the warm and hospitable Dr. Ash, if less so by his house manager, the enigmatic Mrs. Brandt.
Their Edenic first days take a turn when Jacy has a health scare. Vacation activities are scrapped, and all eyes are on Jacy’s condition. At the same time, whispers about Jed’s long-dead mother and complicated family history eerily impede upon the present. Jacy feels trapped in the cottage, her every move surveilled, her body under the looking glass. Are her fears founded or is it paranoia, cabin fever, or—as is suggested to her—a stubborn refusal to take necessary precautions? The dense woods surrounding the cottage are full of dangers, but are the greater ones inside?
