From the moment I heard the elevator pitch for Amazing Grace Adams, I was all-in. Fran Littlewood’s debut novel is the story of an invisible everywoman who is pushed to the brink—and who finally pushes back in spectacular form. Grace’s past and present collide and erupt with themes of love, loss, female rage, family dysfunction, motherhood, and grief. Listening takes you on quite the ride, so I couldn’t wait to ask the author about what inspired her.
Tricia Ford: You’re a successful journalist, so writing has clearly been a big part of your life, but what inspired you to become a fiction writer and novelist now?
Fran Littlewood: I worked as a business journalist, and when I tell you that I once had to phone my mum from my desk at a pretty prestigious publication to ask her how to figure out a percentage sum, you’ll understand that, emphatically, fiction writing suits me better! I had to get my creative kicks crafting colorful intros to features about, say, pensions regulations for small businesses. I paused journalism when my three kids were small, and realized that writing fiction was all I wanted to do. I didn’t want to regret never having tried—even if I didn’t manage to get published, I could live with that. So, I signed up for a Creative Writing MA. There wasn’t really a plan B, so very much “phew!” that things turned out the way they have so far.
How did you first come up with the idea for Amazing Grace Adams?
I loved the dark humor in the improbable idea of taking a midlife woman and making her an action hero! Hitting my mid-40s, I was so sick of lazy representations of women at this stage of their lives—the notion that, as film director Jane Campion puts it, women past the age of 40 become “invisible and unfuckable.” I wanted to redress the balance, and write the interesting, funny, ambitious, smart, nuanced women I knew—with all the desire and doubt and drama that entailed. I was determined the book should be honest and unvarnished, as true as it could be. The narrative spans nearly two decades and also a single long, hot day during which Grace rips up the social contract—and goes out and says and does all the things we only dream of doing. She’s pretty much my fantasy self!
What do you hope listeners take away from this story?
This is a book about love, loss, marriage, parenthood, identity, the ambush of age, and female rage. Thematically, socio-politically, there’s so much in here that I hope listeners will connect with. And although it’s a book very much entrenched in womanhood, brilliantly and unexpectedly for me, it’s resonating with women and men both, and also with people in their 20s up to those in their 70s. I think one of the reasons it has broad appeal is because we first meet Grace aged 28, and we also see scenes from the perspective of her estranged husband, Ben. One of the greatest joys for me in fiction are the moments that chime—those moments that make you look away from the page, or pause the recording, as you relate the events to your own life and gain a new understanding of something you’ve experienced but perhaps haven’t been able to articulate. A sense of solidarity, of feeling “seen.” For an audiobook, by Cecile Pin, narrated by Aoife Hinds, Ioanna Kimbook, and Ainsleigh Barber. It’s a story about family and identity, belonging, resilience and love. A fictional narrative that springs from the author’s mother’s experience as a Vietnamese boat person, it’s impossible to describe without diminishing it. So I’ll only say, the book manages to be both intimate and epic, personal and political, and I’m in awe of it. For a podcast, . Journalist, author, and broadcaster, Sam Baker is blazing the trail in rewriting everything we think we know about what it is to be a woman post-40. She’s smashing taboos all over the place. Her wide-ranging interviews with incredible, interesting women—from Isabel Allende to Minnie Driver, Ruby Wax to Ruth Ozeki—are thoughtful, smart, honest, and full of insight, humor, and wisdom.
