American author Curtis Sittenfeld takes on varied subjects – teenagers at an elite boarding school in Prep, the life of Laura Bush in American Wife, psychic twins in her new novel, Sisterland (published by Doubleday tomorrow) – to create compulsively readable but keenly literary novels. She lives in Missouri with her husband and two children. 

 

Having a sister means there's at least one person in the world who will tell you, ‘Those jeans look awful on you, and you should never wear them again.’  

 

The book that changed my life was The Perfect Wife: The Life and Choices of Laura Bush by Ann Gerhart. Prior to reading this biography in 2004, I'd been intrigued by Laura Bush, but it made me realise just how complex America's first lady really was. Two years later, I began working on American Wife.    

 

My worst habit is worrying. But I motivate myself by worrying. 

 

Money is useful for buying organic fruit. 

 

Motherhood feels like the only justification for allowing another human being to blow her nose on your shirt.