Caroline Leavitt is the author of Cruel Beautiful World, and the New York Times bestsellers Is This Tomorrow and Pictures of You, as well as eight other novels.A book critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and People, she’s the recipient of a New York Foundation of the Arts Grant in Fiction, and was a finalist in both the Sundance Screenwriters’ Lab and the Nickelodeon Screenwriters’ Fellowships.
From Leavitt's interview with NPR's Scott Simon:
SIMON: And I gather this book started with something that really happened to you.Visit Caroline Leavitt's website and blog.
LEAVITT: It did. I've been obsessed with this book since I was 17. I sat beside this girl in study hall, and she was telling me how she was engaged to a much older guy who was a little controlling. And I didn't really understand that.
A year after I got out of high school, I heard the news. She'd broken up with him, and he had stabbed her to death. And it just haunted me. I couldn't figure out if she had been with him for so long, why didn't she see signs that he might be violent? How did somebody stay with somebody like that who was controlling?
And it wasn't until four years ago, when I was looking at click-bait (laughter) on the internet about, you know, 10 celebrities who aren't very nice people, that I happened to...
SIMON: (Laughter) I think I've seen that one, yeah.
LEAVITT: (Laughter) ...That I happened to see a posting from my high school friend's sister who was still obsessed with the crime and what had happened. And there were all these unanswered questions. And...[read on]
The Page 69 Test: Pictures of You.
My Book, the Movie: Pictures of You.
The Page 69 Test: Is This Tomorrow.
My Book, The Movie: Is This Tomorrow.
My Book, The Movie: Cruel Beautiful World.
The Page 69 Test: Cruel Beautiful World.
Writers Read: Caroline Leavitt.
--Marshal Zeringue