Lily King, HEART THE LOVER

Summary

Totally Booked with Zibby — Lily King, HEART THE LOVER

Date: October 1, 2025
Host: Zibby Owens
Guest: Lily King (Author of Heart the Lover)

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Episode Overview

In this heartfelt and insightful episode, Zibby Owens interviews celebrated novelist Lily King about her newest book, Heart the Lover. The conversation delves deeply into the book's themes—love that shifts over time, the lingering echoes of early relationships, the intersection of personal pain and creative growth, and the power that small moments and literary references hold in shaping life and story. The episode is rich in discussion about craft, personal history, processing trauma through writing, and the private details that make fiction feel real.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Introduction and Background

• Zibby warmly welcomes Lily back, noting that Writers and Lovers was a book club favorite and praising Heart the Lover for its “real, emotional, classic Lily King” characters.

  • [03:36] Zibby Owens: “The way you make your characters, how you craft them, they're so real, their emotions are so real, their families, just all of it, it's just so classic you and so good.”

• Lily shares nervous excitement for her first official interview about this new novel.

  • [03:25] Lily King: "This is my, my first interview, my first podcast, like, official kind of thing. Oh my gosh."

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What Heart the Lover Is About

• Lily distills Heart the Lover:

  • Follows a young woman in college whose ill-fated date sets off events tracked for 30 years.
  • It’s a “big love story,” but doesn’t follow predictable romance arcs; explores different loves—friendship, books, change over time.
    • [04:06] Lily King: "It is a big love story that does not follow the normal trajectory of a love story...the nature of love, I think in the book, changes as time passes."

• The book examines the weight of formative relationships and how personal histories and bookish influences reverberate throughout a life.

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The Book’s Genesis and Process

• After her short story collection, Lily started (and abandoned) a political murder mystery set in Maine, inspired by the tensions of COVID and the moment.

• The turning point: reading Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake. The evident joy in that book made Lily realize writing should be fun, launching her into Heart the Lover the very next day.

  • [05:10] Lily King: "...I read about six pages of that book, and I was like, she is having fun. She is having so much fun. I am having no fun in my chair. And I literally, the next day, I started Heart the Lover."

• The novel unfolded organically, with many discoveries (“easter eggs”) surprising even her.

  • [07:15] Lily King: "...I realized it when I took a note about the future of the book, and I wrote down the name of the person that Jordan was married to. And I was like, oh, my God. Really? I can't do that..."

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Grief, Reverberation, and Real-Life Roots

• Zibby reads a moving passage from the book about a college acquaintance murdered—a loss that quietly reverberates for years.
• Lily explains her inclusion of seemingly tangential trauma:
  • Life is compartmentalized—happy milestones and undercurrents of disruption and loss coexist.
  • This subplot was drawn from her own brief, disorienting experience of loss in college.
    • [09:46] Lily King: "...I really just wanted to capture the time in her life where everything is kind of separated and compartmentalized and she kind of has to go from. From one world to another world...And I will also say that this really is something that happened to me..."

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Books Within the Book — On Literary References

• The novel references 30–40 different works of literature, many drawn unconsciously from Lily’s own college experience.
• Literature as an undercurrent, “not in control”—the writing process is more dreamlike and intuitive than methodical.
  • [12:50] Lily King: "...it just, you know, I, I, I often feel like it just, I am not in control. I am not choosing...It's like trying to control a dream. You really can't do it..."

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The “Small Moments” Craft

• Zibby highlights the intense, almost cinematic intimacy of scenes set in kitchens, or in subtle gestures and routines.
• Lily attributes this to a life honed toward hyperawareness—her father’s alcoholism and need for vigilance over tiny emotional signals.
  • [16:25] Lily King: "...when you have a parent who's an alcoholic, you have to pay such close attention...So I think...that's where that hyper maybe sensitivity comes from or...why those things are so important to me in writing."

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Coping, Family, and Healing Through Writing

• Lily and Zibby discuss how trauma—and its denial—influenced their respective upbringings.

• Lily’s path to healing and integrating her experiences progressed through therapy (seriously undertaken once she had kids) and ultimately through writing, especially her autobiographical novel Father of the Rain:

  • [18:30] Lily King: "When I had kids, that's really. That was when I was like, I have to deal with this...She helped me so much. Just a few years, and she just really, really, really helped me with...my anger and my sadness..."
  • [21:56] Lily King: "...once I started that, I started writing that. I wrote that book pretty soon after that. And that was hugely cathartic. I mean, it just was. It just kind of put it all to rest. I was so much better after that."

• Differences in processing among siblings, owing to their age and timing of parental divorce, are explored.

  • [23:55] Lily King: "[My siblings] were mostly out of the house, and they went to boarding school, and I didn't. But I think it's had a huge impact on them, but in a different way. I would say. I would say, in general, harder for them than me."

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On Craft, Focus, and Coping With the World

• Zibby asks about maintaining creative focus amid chaos.

• Lily describes the importance of physical and psychological separation—a "room of one's own"—and the discipline of showing up to write, even imperfectly.

  • [24:53] Lily King: "I really do think a room of one's own is really important. You have to have a space. Like I shut this door. I'm in my study, it's at the top of the house. So it's hard for people to get to. They leave me alone. That is really important for me."

• Writing became a haven during tumultuous family times; the act of writing itself was sometimes the only controllable variable in her life.

  • [27:28] Lily King: "...I wrote this book through some difficult years...I never thought that I would finish this book...it saved me...I had a place to go. I had a place where I could control the variables..."

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "It is a big love story that does not follow the normal trajectory of a love story...the nature of love...changes as time passes."
  — Lily King, [04:06]

• “I read about six pages of that book, and I was like, she is having fun. She is having so much fun. I am having no fun in my chair.”
  — Lily King, on starting Heart the Lover, [05:10]

• “I am not in control. I am not choosing. I am not—something else is happening.”
  — Lily King, on her writing process, [12:50]

• "When you have a parent who's an alcoholic, you have to pay such close attention ... what gesture, what shake of the head...for self protection."
  — Lily King, [16:25]

• “I really, you know, had to work on this authentic behavior, doing things from the heart. And I had not done that because I was always trying to just keep everybody not mad at me.”
  — Lily King, [20:55]

• “I wrote this book through some difficult years ... it saved me ... I had a place where I could control the variables, even though I say I don’t control them.”
  — Lily King, [27:28]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:25 – Lily’s nerves for her first podcast about the book
• 03:36 – Zibby’s emotional reaction to reading the novel
• 04:06 – Lily’s own summary of Heart the Lover
• 05:10 – The shift from an abandoned murder mystery to starting Heart the Lover
• 07:15 – Discovery and “easter eggs” during writing
• 08:10–09:44 – The passage Zibby reads about grief, and the discussion on compartmentalizing loss
• 12:50 – On literary references and unconscious creation
• 16:25 – How Lily’s background with an alcoholic parent shaped her writing
• 18:30–21:56 – Processing family trauma, therapy, and the catharsis of fiction
• 24:53 – Craft advice: routines, space, and discipline
• 27:28 – Writing as a lifeline during personal hardship

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Tone & Takeaways

With her combination of warmth and directness, Lily King offers an unfiltered glimpse into the intersection of life and art. She’s honest about struggle, discovery, and the mysterious (even magical) ways novels evolve. Zibby’s questions draw out the emotional, philosophical, and deeply personal threads that make Heart the Lover both specific to Lily’s experience and resonant for any reader.

This episode is essential listening for fans of literary fiction, process-driven writers, and anyone interested in how lived experience shapes art—often in ways that only become clear after the fact.

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Host Recommendation:
Zibby strongly recommends both Writers and Lovers and Heart the Lover, suggesting book clubs and individual readers will find them exceptionally moving and worthwhile.

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For More:
Visit zibbymedia.com, follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens, and, as ever, buy the books!

Transcript

[Lily King]

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[Lily King]

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[Zibby Owens]

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[Lily King]

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[Lily King]

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[Zibby Owens]

Today's episode is sponsored by the Foxed Page, a podcast and YouTube channel that dives deep into the very best books. It's basically your favorite college English class, but very relaxed and way more fun. No exams, no participation, and only books you really want to read. Kimberly Ford, best selling author, one time professor and PhD in literature, offers up entertaining, often funny talks that will leave you feeling inspired and a little smarter. She digs right into everything from J.D. salinger to Miranda July, from Demon Copperhead to Madame Bovary, from Pride and Prejudice to Lessons in Chemistry. The talks on individual books are the heart of the podcast, but enriched read segments tackle ideas like Unreliable narrators while old favorite talks treat you to a fresh adult look at childhood gems like Harriet the Spy and Are you there God? It's me, Margaret. Want to get the most out of what you read and be entertained along the way? The Fox page is for you. Hi, this is Zibby Owens and you're listening to Totally Booked with Zibby, formerly Moms don't have Time to Read Books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest best selling, buzziest or underrated authors and story creators whose work I think is worth your time. And as a bookstore owner, publisher, author, and obviously podcaster, I get a comprehensive look at everything that's coming out and spend my time curating the best books so you don't have to stay in the know, get insider insights and connect with guests like I do every single day. For more information, go to zibbymedia.com and follow me on Instagram, Ibbeowensk, Lily King is the author of Heart the Lover. Lily is the New York Times best selling author of six novels, including Euphoria and Writers and Lovers, which she was on this podcast discussing and the story collection Five Tuesdays in Winter. Actually backing up Writers and Lovers was one of my Zivi's book club picks, and this is why one of my very favorite books. And if you haven't read that, you must. And then you have to read Heart the Lover. Okay. Anyway. Her work has won numerous prizes and awards, including the Kirkus Prize, the New England Book Award for Fiction, the Maine Book Award for Fiction, and a Whiting Award. She lives in Portland, Maine. Welcome back to Totally Booked Lily. Thank you for coming on to talk about Heart the A novel. Congratulations.

[Lily King]

Oh, thank you, Zibby. It's so great to be here. This is my, my first interview, my first podcast, like, official kind of thing. Oh my gosh.

[Zibby Owens]

Well, the book was so good, I cried at the end. I love the whole thing. I just, the way you make your characters, how you craft them, they're so real, their emotions are so real, their families, just all of it, it's just so classic you and so good.

[Lily King]

Thank you. Thank you so, so, so, so much.

[Zibby Owens]

You're welcome.

[Lily King]

It's really terrifying to have a book.

[Zibby Owens]

Tell listeners what your book is about, please.

[Lily King]

Well, it's really about a young woman in college who goes on a bad date with a smart guy and puts in motion, you know, a series of events that we follow intermittently through about 30 years. And it is a big love story that does not follow the normal trajectory of a love story. And there are several loves kind of worked into it. And the nature of love, I think in the book changes as time passes. And I do think the book is a lot about time and about the impact of these very early relationships, be it friendships or loves or even relationships with books that has a part in it too.

[Zibby Owens]

Beautiful. So where did, after Writers and Lovers, you had a collection of short stories come out? Was this, were you working on this all along? Tell me what happened.

[Lily King]

It's never, ever straightforward with me. I will, I want it to be. But in fact, Covid hit and I started working on a novel that was sort of a murder mystery. And I don't read murder mysteries, which was really red flag number one. I had a dead senator on the first page and I loved that first page. And then I wrote 90 more pages. And it's kind of a town and gown situation on an island off the coast of Maine. And it was dealing with A lot of political stuff. Kind of our political climate at the time and Covid and how that was playing out. And I felt like it was, you know, so important and impactful, and it just fizzled after 90 pages. And. Right. Right. The time when I would be sitting in my little chair over there and trying to figure out the plot of this novel. You know, I had had all the characters and I had all the emotions. I just really couldn't work it all out in terms of just the murder mystery plot. And Ann Patchett sent me her book in manuscript form, Tom Lake. And I think she sent it to me because I have two girls and there are three girls in that novel. And she sort of, you know, wanted my impressions. And I read about six pages of that book, and I was like, she is having fun. She is having so much fun. I am having no fun in my chair. And I literally, the next day, I started Heart the Lover. And I did not. I just had the date, the classroom and the date. And I didn't know how it was going to relate to. To writers and lovers. I didn't have that piece yet.

[Zibby Owens]

Wow. And then what happened? It just unfolded as you wrote.

[Lily King]

And then, you know, I just. It's so hard. It's such a hard book to talk about because really, there's so many secrets.

[Zibby Owens]

Right.

[Lily King]

And there are surprises for the reader. My editor likes to call them easter eggs. I didn't mean for there to be surprises and secrets. It just kind of happened that way. So I realized it when I took a note about the future of the book, and I wrote down the name of the person that Jordan was married to. And I was like, oh, my God. Really? I can't do that. That was my feeling, is I can't do that. My editor, Elizabeth, won't like that. Nobody will like that. I don't like that. And yet it was there, and there was nothing I could do about it. And so I just had to kind of keep going and make it work somehow.

[Zibby Owens]

Oh, my gosh. Well, as you say, there are many threads of love and friendship and all of that. And you have one roommate of Jordan's pass away early on. Can I read the section? It's like page 30, so I feel like I'm not giving too much.

[Lily King]

Yes, absolutely.

[Zibby Owens]

And the date that she goes on is with this man, Sam, who he referenced. So a few weeks before I met Sam, a girl I knew had been killed off campus, stabbed to death. The school paper said in the only article they wrote about it, no one I knew knew Her Carson had gone home for the summer, and I'd cobbled together a few sublets before we moved into PI street together in September. In August, I ended up in Franklin Terrace for a few weeks. And so had she, this girl from Iran. She was going to be a sophomore and took summer classes during the day. I was working at high five at night, so we didn't see each other much. I only remember a few real conversations. She told me her father had worked for the Shah and they'd left Iran when the Shah did. Nine days after the start of the revolution, when she was 9. She had the most delicate and pale skin I'd ever seen, as if a ray of sun had never touched it. She had a crush on the boy in the apartment next door. He was going to be a sophomore, too. When she told me he'd asked her out, she leapt around the apartment like a deer. She was a virgin. She told me she'd never had a boyfriend before. We lived together for three weeks. I don't remember saying goodbye. She wasn't there the day I moved out. I didn't see her on campus after that. A month later, she was dead. Just stop there. And then you go on to explain how and what happened. And this particular loss reverberates throughout the book in different ways and how she did and didn't process this loss. What it does when you have a loss that's unconnected to other people. I feel like there's so much where we lose someone and we're part of a community and you can have that communal loss, but here it was just someone she kind of knew off on the side, but it doesn't make it any less potent.

[Lily King]

So.

[Zibby Owens]

So just tell me a little bit about that.

[Lily King]

It's interesting. There are always things in my novels that seem a little bit off to the side and, like, that did not have to be in there, and we could have cut that out. And it doesn't ever really, you know, it doesn't really kind of swerve back into the book in a big way. But I love that you see it as reverberating through it. Despite that. I guess I'm always interested in showing that people can be having a good college experience or any kind of experience falling in love, falling in love with literature. It can be a good time in their life. And yet there are always things that are happening that we're processing and we're always focused, functioning on different levels with. With different kind of sets of emotions and. And disruptive, difficult, challenging things and. And I. I really just wanted to capture the time in her life where. Where everything is kind of separated and compartmentalized and she kind of has to go from. From one world to another world to another world to another world. And. And she's juggling. She's, you know, a young woman juggling all these emotions and a lot of kind of sexism under everything. And, you know, this murder, obviously, is. Is tied to a sort of misogyny as well. And I guess it was just my way of. Of trying to. To deepen her experience. And I will also say that this really is something that happened to me, you know, more or less. I mean, not exactly the same details, but. And it did seem so. Just kind of inserted into my college experience in this strange way that I truly never processed. And then every now and then we'll just get a wave of kind of confusion about it and incredible sadness and also just what happened and where is her family? And they never knew me or knew about me or anything. And just an incredible disconnection, but also a very strong connection.

[Zibby Owens]

I'm sorry to hear that happen to you.

[Lily King]

Thank you.

[Zibby Owens]

Maybe this is a way of processing years later.

[Lily King]

Yeah. I mean, so much ends up. So much that you have to process ends up in your books. You know, it just happens, and you don't see it coming.

[Zibby Owens]

Well, it's like inserting like a straw in your brain and it all just comes dribbling out onto the page like, who knows in what order to make sense of it all. As you say, there's a lot of talk about books in the book, as in your books in general. Normally here there's a lot of talk about philosophy and academia and intellectual rigor discussions and all of that. How do you pick what to include? What do you want the reader to take away by their conversations?

[Lily King]

It just sort of happens. Some of it is, you know, definitely stuff that I studied in college or that I discovered in college in some way or another, and. And then some of it is stuff I stumble on while I'm writing the book, and I'm like, oh, I could put that in. I could put that in, you know, and. And I just. Sometimes it's a concept that I'm trying to get across, and so I have to figure out, okay, what can I use to. To get that concept across? But a lot. I was really surprised. My. My UK publisher made a list of all of the literature that's referenced in the book, and I would have said maybe 10 books. And the list was probably 30 or 40. It was insane. Maybe even more. I just, I didn't, I didn't mean to do that again. It just, you know, I, I, I often feel like it just, I am not in control. I am not choosing. I am not. I. Something, something else is happening. It's like trying to control a dream. You really can't do it unless you get into that wonderful little half woken up phase where you can kind of manipulate it. And sometimes I can get in there, but a lot of times it's truly unconscious and I'm just along for the ride.

[Zibby Owens]

I get it. All good.

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[Lily King]

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[Lily King]

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[Zibby Owens]

A lot of scenes in the book take place sort of in the kitchen or in these intimate spaces chopping something or making a chicken or whatever. And they're in these like quiet private moments that you recreate as if we are there with you and the slight moments and who turns and who puts what hand where and the littlest movements have like the biggest impacts. Talk about how you did that or why you do that or I know a lot of this is these are stupid questions because how do you know how you did it? But I'm just curious about it or just want to say, like I noticed.

[Lily King]

I remember writing as particularly that chopping scene. And you know, there's this tension and they want to communicate, but there's another person in the room that they're trying to communicate about. And so, you know, he just taps his knife twice. And I remember thinking, no one is going to understand this. No one is going to care. And it's just so silly and so granular and micro, you know, why. Why would this be in here? And yet I just, I couldn't, I couldn't figure out another way to do it. And I really feel like, I do feel like that's the way I live. It's the way I see the little things are really important to me. And I mean not to turn this too much into a little sob story, but my father was a terrible alcoholic. And when you have a parent who's an alcoholic, you have to pay such close attention. You know, you have to know exactly when is the tipping point. When do you have to get out of the room? You know, like what gesture, what shape of the lips, you know, what tone of voice, what shake of the head. Or even like my dad used to sweat when he'd get to a certain, you know, number of martinis. And so you have to notice all of that for self protection. So I think. And then, and then there was my mom who was so unhappy in that marriage and you know, a lot of anger. So you had to kind of navigate that too. And so I think that's where that hyper maybe sensitivity comes from or the why those things are so important to me in writing.

[Zibby Owens]

Well, thank you for sharing that. So how, aside from hyper vigilance, how did you find a way to process that? How did you, at what point in your life did you like dive into it and try to make peace? Did you like, where are you on the whole spectrum of it?

[Lily King]

Gosh, it's such a lifelong process. I mean, it took me so long. My best friend in high school and I both had alcoholic fathers. We never spoke of it. I can't understand why I. But it took me so long. It's not like I was thinking, this is a secret. This is something I have. I just like, like it was that buried and that. I mean, I knew it, but I just didn't talk about it even to my best friend. And she didn't talk to me about her father, who apparently would dis. He was a binge drinker and he would disappear for days at a time. And I Had no idea. Thought she had an incredibly happy family. Happy. I loved her parents. I was over there all the time. Anyway, I think, you know, I would, you know, every now and then I would try to see a therapist in my adult years and then. And I, you know, for a little bit. And it would be kind of a therapist who didn't charge very much money because I had no money, or it would be, you know, couple of things free on my insurance. And. And then when I had kids, that's really. That was when I was like, I have to deal with this. I. I am putting so much pressure on myself to be the perfect parent. And I also want this writing career. And it was a terrible tension, and I couldn't figure it out. And I finally heard about some friend who had a therapist who she loved, and I went to see her, and, oh, my God, she helped me so much. Just a few years, and she just really, really, really helped me with my. My anger and my. My sadness underneath the anger and. And. And the way I kind of made my mother perfect and my father evil. And that. I kind of had to come, you know, they both had to come together a little bit into a more realistic picture. And it really helped my writing. I mean, I was really able to write then, and. And slowly, I think Father of the Rain, my third book, came out of writing an autobiographical kind of sketch for her. She asked me to write, like, 10 pages or something about my upbringing. And really that. Once I started that, I started writing that. I wrote that book pretty soon after that. And that was hugely cathartic. I mean, it just was. It just kind of put it all to rest. I was so much better after that. Also, this therapist. My parents were still alive, and my. My dad was very, very difficult. And I had these young kids, and I didn't really want to expose them to him and his stuff. And yet I felt guilty about it, and I felt guilty about not going up and visiting him and bringing them. And my therapist was like, do you want to go or do you not want to go? And I was like, I don't want to go. She's like, so don't go. It was. I was like, really? I can do that. I didn't see my father for five years. It was the best thing I ever did. It really was. I mean, it just. It just freed me, like. And so when I did see him again, I wanted to see him, and that was a huge change for me. And so I really, you know, had to work on this authentic behavior, doing things from the heart. And I had not done that because I was always trying to just keep everybody not mad at me. You know, that was my whole thing. So. Sorry, that was kind of a long winded answer.

[Zibby Owens]

No, I loved it. No, I. Thank you. I like hearing the backstory because when you create something, obviously it has to do with all the experiences that you've had in some way. Right. It all gets mixed up there. And so. So having that context, I think adds an even bigger meaning to the book and helps understand a lot of the pieces, even. So how did your siblings deal with the situation in the same way or.

[Lily King]

When you were growing up so differently? They are eight and a half and seven and a half years older than me, and they had a very different experience of childhood because my parents were together. They're, you know, until they were 18 or 19. And my mom left my dad when I was 11. So, you know, I went back and forth. And in. In a way, I feel like they got the very unhappy mother. And I got, after age 11, just this mother. I have, actually, I have a picture of her over here where she's just completely liberated, you know, and so she's having her kind of second youth and lots of love affairs, and she's just free and herself. And I got all of that. And they didn't. I mean, they got it. You know, they were in their 20s, but it wasn't quite the same. But my mother protected them from my dad's drinking, and she. She also really controlled my dad's drinking. He didn't want to lose her, and he was on much better behavior. But when she left him, he married somebody else who was also an alcoholic, and things were. Went completely off the rails. So I had to deal with that every weekend. And that was bad. That was bad. But I had three step brothers and sisters, and I was really close with them, and that helped. And I'm trying to figure out what the original question was.

[Zibby Owens]

I had just asked how your siblings had handled.

[Lily King]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Handled it. Yeah. And so they kind of pull. They were. They were mostly out of the house, and they went to boarding school, and I didn't. And so they got out pretty early. But I think it's had a huge impact on them, but in a different way. I would say. I would say, in general, harder for them than me. Wow.

[Zibby Owens]

Well, when you have the space to write and the time and you. How do you get into the headspace where you can just dive into fiction and your characters? When you have the stress of your life and your Own girls and all the things that are happening and illness and the world and all of that. And yet we have a relatively, you know, not simple, sounds bad, but like a slice of life story, right? Like a slice of someone's life. This little thing in the context of like the massive world. So how do you quiet all the other noise and just go right there?

[Lily King]

Well, I really do think a room of one's own is really important. You have to have a space. Like I shut this door. I'm in my study, it's at the top of the house. So it's hard for people to get to. They leave me alone. That is really important for me. I mean, I did work at a cafe this morning and so sometimes I have to get out of the house. But the kind of, the physical stuff, just separation. Don't try to be Jane Austen, you know, writing on your little pad like, you know, in between visiting guests in the living room. That's just that that's a feat that only, only she could really achieve. And I find you have to force it. I mean, most days you have to force yourself to do it. It doesn't come naturally. I'm really not a writer who's like, oh, I can't wait to start writing today. You know, I have to drag my feet and make myself do it. And sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. And I really try not to get emotionally invested in whether the day went well or not. I understand it's a long game and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But there are those times. I had one yesterday. I had like a kind of a serious cardiology appointment yesterday at 11. Sorry, at 1:10. And I was. I really wanted to get there very early. I'm usually kind of a late person that I really, really, really is, is an important appointment. And I started working on this, this revision of an essay and I just. I just totally lost track of time. And I never, all morning I was like, okay, okay. I was looking at my watch and then just. I had this 15 minute period where I was just gone. And that is so beautiful. I just love those moments. And I got to the appointment with one minute. You know, I was, I was on time. I was early by one minute. But I looked at my watch and I was like, what just happened? Like, it's just like disappeared. I really couldn't account for it. And I love that. And I just think that is how I cope, you know, that is how I cope with everything, everything in my life. I wrote this book through Some difficult years, which you know about because we've been in touch and, you know, my kids were not well, and I never thought that I would finish this book. I mean, it was so hard. And yet at the same time, I feel like it saved me. You know, it got me. It got me through. I had a place to go. I had a place where I could control the variables, even though I say I don't control them. You know, it's mine. You know, like, I don't know, it just. It's doesn't depend on fate and this. The weird quirks of, you know, what the universe wants to send you. You know, it's just. Just my little world. And I think I really need that.

[Zibby Owens]

It's beautiful. It's so beautiful. And Lily, it's so good. I mean, it is so good. Maybe the hard times just added even more real emotion to it or something because it is just oozing with the stuff of life that we all can need and relate to. And anyway, congratulations. I really loved it.

[Lily King]

Thank you.

[Zibby Owens]

It's so good. Thank you.

[Lily King]

Oh, thank you so much.

[Zibby Owens]

Okay, well, that's it for today. That's it. It's already half an hour. I know. It's like so fast, but, yeah, congrats. And I really wanted to choose this as my book club, but you would have to come to the book club. So it's up to you if you. It sounds like your. Your schedule is packed, but just. I'll recommend it to everybody far and wide.

[Lily King]

Oh, well, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I appreciate it so much.

[Zibby Owens]

Okay. All right. Bye, Lily. Thank you.

[Lily King]

Bye.

[Zibby Owens]

Bye.

[Lily King]

Thank you. Take really good care.

[Zibby Owens]

Okay? Thank you.

[Lily King]

Have a great rest of summer.

[Zibby Owens]

You too. Bye.

[Lily King]

Bye.

[Zibby Owens]

Thank you for listening to Totally Booked with Zibby, formerly Moms don't have time to read books. If you loved the show, tell a friend, leave a review, follow me on Instagram, ibbyoans and spread the word. Thanks so much. Oh, and buy the books.

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[Lily King]

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[Lily King]

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[Ann Morris]

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[Lily King]

Acast helps.

[Zibby Owens]

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