Even the casual reader who glanced at the lists of the Best Books of 2021, or Most Anticipated Fiction of ’21 knew of THE PUSH. Ashley Audrain’s debut novel explores a women’s greatest fears about motherhood through the suspenseful, gripping story of Blythe and her daughter, Violet. She talks with Olivia about how her professional experience as a literary publicist both shaped and shook her as a writer, and the moments when she deleted nearly ¾ of her manuscript. She also previews her second novel, THE WHISPERS. Margaret and Olivia discuss other highly hyped debuts and their follow-up novels from Gillian Flynn, Kevin Kwan, Alex Michaelides.