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Lily King

Goodreads Author

Website

http://www.lilykingbooks.com/

Twitter

https://twitter.com/lilykingbooks

Genre

Fiction

Member Since

October 2009

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Lily King grew up in Massachusetts and received her B.A. in English Literature from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her M.A. in Creative Writing from Syracuse University. She has taught English and Creative Writing at several universities and high schools in this country and abroad. Lily's new novel, Euphoria, was released in June 2014. It has drawn significant acclaim so far, being named an Amazon Book of the Month, on the Indie Next List, and hitting numerous summer reading lists from The Boston Globe to O Magazine and USA Today. Reviewed on the cover of The New York Times Book Review, Emily Eakin called Euphoria, “a taut, witty, fiercely intelligent tale of competing egos and desires in a landscape of exotic menace.”

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While your book largely follows the life of Margaret Mead, you do take some liberties, particularly with the resolution of her relationships. . . Why did you make those decisions and has there been any reaction from readers (or the Margaret Mead estate, even?)

Lily King Hi Sara! Great question! When I first got the idea and started researching, I thought I would tell, as best I could from pretty limited sources, the s…moreHi Sara! Great question! When I first got the idea and started researching, I thought I would tell, as best I could from pretty limited sources, the story of what happened with Margaret Mead, her second husband Reo Fortune, and the British anthropologist Gregory Bateson in 1933 in what was then called the Territory of New Guinea. But the by the end of the first page of the first draft of the book, I remembered I was a novelist, not a biographer or a historian and I had no interest in sticking to the facts. My only allegiance is to my characters and the story as it unfolds. And my characters very quickly became my own; they were not Mead or Fortune or Bateson. How could they be? I had never met them and only knew a limited amount of things about them. But to create fictional characters you have to know everything--or you have to give yourself the freedom to know whatever you need at any given moment to know. So I borrowed from my real-life inspirations, but I made up much, much more. I had to make up the rules as I went—I didn't know any books that had this model but I wasn't thinking about models or anything like that. I was just trying to write a book I would like to read. That's all I can ever do. That's what I stay loyal to. I have heard from Mead and Bateson's daughter, Mary Catherine Bateson, a gifted writer and anthropologist, and she has been wonderful and supportive. She is fully aware that I was not trying to capture the personalities or story of her parents. Sorry, long answer!(less)

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Hi Lily, I absolutely loved Euphoria-- so much so that I started a book club just so that I would have people to discuss it with. I loved how the book is loosely based on the life of Margaret Mead. What I wanted to ask is if you see yourself doing something like this again in the future-- write a novel about the life of another historical figure?

Lily King Oh how happy that makes me that you started a book club because of it! Yes, it does feel like a bit of a bug I've caught. I have a few more ideas for …moreOh how happy that makes me that you started a book club because of it! Yes, it does feel like a bit of a bug I've caught. I have a few more ideas for sometime in the future. But right now I'm working on something contemporary. It's much harder than Euphoria and I'm daunted by the challenge. But I think that's probably a good way to feel. Thanks so much for writing. Can I recommend Old Filth to your club? I love that book so. (less)

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Lily King’s books

Average rating: 3.93 · 304,911 ratings · 38,466 reviews · 17 distinct works • Similar authors

	Writers & Lovers really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 163,720 ratings — published 2020	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Euphoria 3.86 avg rating — 98,904 ratings — published 2014 — 64 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Five Tuesdays in Winter 3.71 avg rating — 22,444 ratings — published 2021 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Father of the Rain 4.03 avg rating — 8,700 ratings — published 2010 — 31 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Pleasing Hour 3.54 avg rating — 4,594 ratings — published 1999 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The English Teacher 3.67 avg rating — 4,072 ratings — published 2005 — 21 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Heart the Lover 4.47 avg rating — 2,360 ratings — published 2025 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Hotel Seattle 3.86 avg rating — 43 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	One Story 212: When in the Dordogne 4.20 avg rating — 25 ratings — published 2015	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Heart the Lover: A Novel 4.40 avg rating — 5 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Lily King…

Need another excuse to treat yourself to a new book this week? We've got you covered with the buzziest new releases of the day, according to early...

Polls

February Side Read Nominations ~ 1st Poll
Top 5 Books move onto Final Poll

The Secrets We Kept

by Lara Prescott

11 votes, 28.9%

The Ten Thousand Doors of January

by Alix E. Harrow

7 votes, 18.4%

Red at the Bone

by Jacqueline Woodson

5 votes, 13.2%

The Water Dancer

by Ta-Nehisi Coates

4 votes, 10.5%

The Hidden Things

by Jamie Mason

3 votes, 7.9%

Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love

by Dani Shapiro

2 votes, 5.3%

Euphoria

by Lily King

2 votes, 5.3%

Exit West

by Mohsin Hamid

2 votes, 5.3%

Tin Badges

by Lorenzo Carcaterra

1 vote, 2.6%

If I Was Your Girl

by Meredith Russo

1 vote, 2.6%

38 total votes

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