Louisa Hall left the leafy suburbs of Philadelphia for Texas. And it was this move that prompted her to set her first novel back in those environs - both the good and bad of them.
Hall's The Carriage House chronicles the Adair family as they struggle with their mother's dementia, their father's stroke, and the prospect of losing their primary symbol of family tradition and prominence in the neighborhood - a now-decrepit carriage house. Hall, who says she wrote the book "in conversation" with Jane Austen's "Persuasion," was fascinated with the idea of people who leave part of their former selves behind and must somehow reconcile their evolving identities. Hall did a bit of that herself; she is a champion squash player-turned-novelist.
Hear more from Hall, including her take on the juiciest character she wrote in the novel, by listening to the interview on this page.
