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PEOPLE & ARTS Wednesday 10 May 2017
Best-selling authors discuss art of ‘the beach read’

HILLEL ITALIE ice Monroe, whose “Beach among authors more likely by Taylor Jenkins Reid
ALICIA RANCILIO House for Rent” comes out to write the Great Ameri- Imagine if before their
Associated Press in June, sets her work along can Novel than the Great deaths, Lana Turner or Eliz-
NEW YORK (AP) — For the South Carolina coast American Beach Novel. abeth Taylor agreed to sit
author Elin Hilderbrand, and calls it a “personal pet “So here I am, in the middle down to an extensive in-
the art of the beach novel peeve” when she reads a of the country with all these terview about their much-
is very much a matter of lo- beach story and finds mis- hyperintellectuals, and I’m scrutinized love lives. That’s
cation. takes in the description of so miserable,” Hilderbrand what happens in “The
Starting with where she says. “And I decided, to Seven Husbands of Evelyn
writes. make myself feel better, Hugo.” An up-and-coming
“I write my books in long- that I’m going to write a journalist gets the scoop of
hand, so I actually work novel set in Nantucket. “I her career by landing an
on them at the beach,” imagine they thought I was exclusive interview with an
Hilderbrand, who sets her really silly,” she says of her aging legendary actress.
best-sellers at home on the fellow Iowa students. “I’m She’s ready to talk about
Massachusetts island of laughing all the way to the her life and storied relation-
Nantucket, told The Associ- bank.” ships. The book is fascinat-
ated Press during a recent Here are other books to ing, emotional and will be This cover image released by
telephone interview. look for this summer: hard to put down. For fans Little, Brown and Company
“And all those elements —”The Seven Husbands of of Taylor Jenkins Reid, this is shows “The Identicals,” by
that make for an authentic Evelyn Hugo” (Atria Books,) her best work yet. Elin Hilderbrand, available on
June 13.
summer experience, the fe- “Into the Water” (Penguin Associated Press
tishes that go with summer- Group,) by Paula Hawkins
time — love of that special The best-selling author of are surprises throughout.
summer place and the dis- “The Girl on the Train” fol- “Rich People Problems”
tinction between summer lows up that smash hit with (Doubleday,) by Kevin
and the rest of the year — the landscape. “Into the Water.” Hawkins Kwan
these are what I try to de- Monroe believes the Kevin Kwan closes out his
pict in my novels.” “beach read” can be more sticks to the suspenseful for- “Crazy Rich Asians” tril-
than an escape. She likes mat she’s known for with ogy with “Rich People
to combine stories of fam- the mystery behind the Problems.” If you haven’t
ily, friendship or romance deaths of women who are read the first two books,
with her advocacy for en- believed to have drowned you should start there, but
in the same river in an Eng-
vironmentalism. “Beach Kwan’s books about the
House for Rent” tells of two lish town. Like “The Girl on absurdly wealthy in Singa-
women unexpectedly shar- the Train,” the narrators pore are laugh-out loud
ing a summer home and jump around, the charac- funny. These books are fun
the plight of shorebirds that ters are complex and there page-turners.q
helps unite them.
“What encourages me to
keep working is that I know
I am making a difference
through my books,” Mon-
roe says. “My method when
I’m writing a book is to do
research and become part
of the story I tell. When my
The “beach read” is short- readers experience some-
hand for disposable page- thing like a wounded peli-
turners, but Hilderbrand can on the beach, or when
and others who write them they see a bird fly off, they
have long-held rules and experience it, too, because
standards: strong charac- it’s authentic to my life.”
ters and narratives, and Hilderbrand’s novels in-
settings that are compel- clude “Beautiful Day,”
ling and accurate. Mary Al- ‘’Here’s To Us” and “The
Matchmaker.” Her next
book, scheduled for June, is
called “The Identicals” and
uses the islands of Nantuck-
et and Martha’s Vineyard
for a family drama about
identical twins who are per-
haps more alike than they
want to acknowledge.
Not many writers, Hilder-
brand included, growing
up dreaming of publishing
“beach reads.” She at-
tended the prestigious writ-
ing school at The University
of Iowa and found herself