Author Talk | Julia Franks

Meet award-winning author Julia Franks as she discusses her new novel, "The Say So."

From the award-winning author of Over the Plain Houses comes a novel about two young women contending with unplanned pregnancies in different eras.

The Say So | Edie Carrigan didn't plan to "get herself" pregnant, much less end up in a home for unwed mothers. In 1950s North Carolina, illegitimate pregnancy is kept secret, wayward women require psychiatric cures, and adoption is always the best solution. Not even Edie’s closest friend, Luce Waddell, understands what Edie truly wants: to keep and raise the baby.

Twenty-five years later, Luce is a successful lawyer, and her daughter Meera now faces the same decision Edie once did. Like Luce, Meera is fiercely independent and plans to handle her unexpected pregnancy herself. Along the way, Meera finds startling secrets about her mother’s past, including the long-ago friendship with Edie. As the three women’s lives intertwine and collide, the story circles age-old questions about female awakening, reproductive choice, motherhood, adoption, sex, and missed connections.

For fans of Brit Bennett's The Mothers or Jennifer Weiner's Mrs. Everything, The Say So is a timely novel that asks: how do we contend with the rippling effects of the choices we've made?

Julia Franks is the author of Over the Plain Houses, which was an NPR Best Book of 2016 and was awarded five literary prizes. She has published essays in The New York Times, Ms. Magazine, and The Bitter Southerner. 

Complimentary refreshments. 

Books are available for sale and signing from Eagle Eye Book Shop. 

This program is free and open to the public. Registration is recommended.

* Presented by Adult Services. 

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