About the author… Julie Cohen

She grew up in the US, but now lives with her family in Berkshire, England. A secondary school teacher, she kept writing novels that got rejected but eventually broke through – and hit bestseller lists. This is her fifth novel. This novel was inspired by…

“The renewed conversations we are having all over the world about gender inequality. I worked on this novel during the height of the #MeToo movement – during the Kavanaugh hearings in the US and the US government’s attempts to restrict the rights of trans people. I tried to put some of those big social movements in the context of a small town and the life of one person.” The most challenging thing about writing it was… “To balance both storylines so the two protagonists got equal weight. It all comes down to a single incident that happens to both characters when they are 18. It was tricky to follow both of those storylines – with the same settings, characters and some of the same incidents – without being repetitive or favouring one reality.” I wanted to join the debate about gender because… “Gender inequality hurts everywhere. People are people, whatever our gender, and we all need to allow each other to flourish.”