CURTIS SITTENFELD

The author of bestsellers American Wife and Rodham returns with a change of pace

What provided the inspiration for your new novel?

Romantic Comedy is, among other things, a love letter to the American late night sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, which I’ve been watching off and on since I was about 10.

Is there a book that made you love writing?

I’ve long been obsessed with the fairytale The Twelve Dancing Princesses, which made me think (perhaps unrealistically) that there’s a more interesting world hiding just under this world.

What’s the best book you’ve read?

My all-time favourite writer is Alice Munro, and I especially love her collection The Love of a Good Woman.

A book that had a pivotal impact on your life?

The episodic novel Sarah Phillips by Andrea Lee depicts class, race and girlhood with such precision and intelligence.

The book you couldn’t finish?

There are a lot and I discuss them only off the record with my friends.

A book you wish you had read but haven’t got to?

Two 2023 books I’m looking forward to are The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor, and Big Swiss by

Jen Beagin.

The book you are most proud to have written?

Prep – you never forget your first.

How do you read books?

At the risk of sounding like a princess, I’ve still never read an e-book. Paper forever!

What book do you re-read?

My children are older now, but I memorised several picture books from their babyhood, including Please, Baby, Please by Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee, and Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg.

What books are on your bedside table?

Grown Ups by Marian Keyes.

What are you writing now?

A short story I’ve been working on since 2021. Romantic Comedy, by Curtis Sittenfeld: Doubleday, $33, out now