Nicola Kraus and Amy Shearn Discuss The Best We Could Hope For & Animal Instinct
Join us for a discussion with Nicola Kraus and Amy Shearn on their new books: The Best We Could Hope For and Animal Instinct.
In The Best We Could Hope For, when Bunny Linden abandons her three children with her older sister, Jayne, in 1972, she knows Jayne will be the perfect mother. The mother Bunny, a teen runaway, could never be. As months turn into years without word, Jayne and her husband, Rodger, a rising journalism star, strive to give the children the opportunity to flourish and feel loved. When Jayne and Rodger finally have a child of their own, a seemingly stable home is built. But then, after nearly a decade, Bunny resurfaces and sets a chain of events in motion that detonates all their lives.
As adults, their children try to reassemble the pieces and solve the mystery that has always haunted them. Who were their parents? What really happened between them? And who is ultimately to blame for the destruction? But will the answers they seek set them free—or lead to something far more damaging than anyone imagined?
In Animal Instinct, the world has stopped. But Rachel is just getting started…It’s spring of 2020 and Rachel Bloomstein—mother of three, recent divorcée, and Brooklynite—is stuck inside. But her newly awakened sexual desire and lust for a new life refuse to be contained. Leaning on her best friend Lulu to show her the ropes, Rachel dips a toe in the online dating world, leading to park dates with younger men, flirtations with beautiful women, and actual, in-person sex. None of them, individually, are perfect…hence her rotation.
But what if one person could perfectly cater to all her emotional needs? Driven by this possibility, Rachel creates Frankie, the AI chatbot she programs with all the good parts of dating in middle age . . . and some of the bad. But as Rachel plays with her fantasy to her heart’s content, she begins to realize she can’t reprogram her ex-husband, her children, her friends, or the roster of paramours that’s grown unwieldy. Perhaps real life has more in store for Rachel than she could ever program for herself.
PARTICIPANTS
Nicola Kraus co-authored The Nanny Diaries, an international #1 best-seller and movie starring Scarlett Johansson & Alicia Keys. Nicola has contributed to The London Times, The New York Times, Redbook, Glamour, and Town & Country. In 2015 she co-founded the creative consulting firm The Finished Thought, which helps the next generation of aspiring authors find their voice and audience. The Best We Could Hope For is her first solo novel.
Amy Shearn [rhymes with fern] is the award-winning author of the novels Animal Instinct, Dear Edna Sloane, Unseen City, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, and How Far Is the Ocean From Here. She teaches creative writing at Sackett Street Writers Workshop, the Yale Writers' Workshop, and Writing Co-Lab, an experimental cooperative she helped found. Amy's work has appeared in many publications including the New York Times Modern Love column, Slate, Poets & Writers, and O: The Oprah Magazine. Amy lives in Brooklyn, and works with writers as a developmental editor, book coach, and retreat-leader. You can find her at amyshearnwrites.com.
