Kristin Hannah Explores Resilience
of Human Heart in Latest Novel

Night Road
(St. Martin's Press
March 2011)
ISBN 9780312364427)

Kristin Hannah

BookFlix (Video Interview)
Length: About 14 minutes

New York Times bestselling author Kristin Hannah candidly talks to Authorlink about the development of her latest novel and the challenges of her long and successful writing career while passing through Dallas on a national book tour.

NIGHT ROAD, Hannah's 19th novel, is the unforgettable story of the Farraday family and Lexi Baill, the young teenaged girl whom they welcome into their brood with open arms.  Their world is shattered one night during senior year of high school when a single, reckless decision changes the course of all their lives. In the blink of an eye, the Farradays are torn apart and Lexi loses everything.  In the years that follow, each member must face the consequences of that night and find a way to forget or, if possible, the courage to forgive.

Hannah expertly touches upon the complex terrain and fragility of the human experience and raises profound questions about motherhood, identity, love, and forgiveness in this exquisite novel.  In a letter to her readers, she explains the genesis of the story as such: “I needed my son’s senior year in my rear view window before I could see it clearly, and when I did, I realized I had something to say about that watershed time in life, that one irreplaceable year that changed both parents and their kids.  NIGHT ROAD is the result.”

Kristin Hannah is the New York Times bestselling author of eighteen novels, including the blockbusters Firefly Lane, True Colors and Winter Garden.  Born in Southern California and raised in Western Washington (where most of her novels are set), Kristin spent her early career working in advertising and as an attorney in Seattle.

It was Kristin’s mother who was convinced that she would someday become a writer, though Kristin had never before considered it a viable career path.  However, when her mother became sick with cancer, the two spent months in the hospital writing a novel together (as Kristin would describe it, “the worst, most clichéd historical romance ever written”), a practice that Kristin would revisit years later when she was placed on five months bed rest while pregnant with her son.

Hannah is on an eight-city tour this spring. Find out more about her at www.kristinhannah.com.

--Doris Booth