A lot of buzz about
CYNTHIA D’Aprix Sweeney ( pic) was on her way to meet her family for brunch in New York when she had an idea for the opening scene of her debut novel, The Nest.
Sweeney imagined family members “all needing to meet but all needing a drink before they met and all getting their drink in proximity to each other without knowing that they were all doing the same thing,” she says in a recent phone interview from her home in Los Angeles.
She was intrigued by why they needed to drink before seeing one another and what the meeting was about.
As for The Nest, Sweeney says she’s surprised by “how little I had to know going in. I wrote my way along. When I would start to panic I would just remind myself that I only had to figure out what happened in the next chapter, what happened in the next scene. I didn’t have to be looking way, way down the road. What surprised me is when you take that incremental approach, you do reach a tipping point where all of a sudden things start to come together.”
As Sweeney found her story, she also found a lot of interest from the publishing world.
The Nest, which will be published on Tuesday, was snapped up in a seven- figure deal by Ecco, a HarperCollins imprint. A book trailer featuring actress Ellie Kemper and “Transparent” creator Jill Soloway talking about their own families is available online.
Sweeney says one of the “weirdest” things for her has been all the talk about the book before its publication date. “My family members are really confused. I keep getting e- mails like, ‘ How are there reviews on Amazon? When can we get the book?”’
So, why does she think people are so interested in the novel?
“The combination of family and money is very potent and it really, really seems to strike a chord with people.” – AP