Gayle Forman is a journalist and award-winning and New York Times bestselling author whose many young adult novels include I Was Here, Just One Day, and If I Stay, which was also a major motion picture. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.Forman's new novel is Leave Me.
From her Q&A with Deborah Kalb:
Q: How did you come up with the idea for Leave Me, and for your main character, Maribeth?Learn more about the book and author at Gayle Forman's website.
A: Several years ago I was on a family vacation when I started having chest pains. This was frightening for a number of reasons—my mother had her first bypass surgery at 48 in spite of having no visible risk factors or symptoms—but also because I had two young children.
If I needed this intense surgery, who would take care of my children? Who would take care of me? I was the default mom who worked from home. I did everything. The book began almost as a revenge fantasy, but when it turned out my heart was fine, it went into the drawer.
It came out years later, this time with Maribeth. I had some things to say about parenthood and the assumption we still have that mothers are the default parent and should martyr themselves for their families and sacrifice themselves. I wanted to look at what happens when...[read on]
The Page 69 Test: If I Stay.
The Page 69 Test: Where She Went.
The Page 69 Test: Leave Me.
--Marshal Zeringue