In my twenties, I had a spectacular breakup during a cliffside motorcycle ride on the Amalfi Coast. Friends and family have been asking me to write about it for years, but until recently I couldn’t see beyond the heartbreak. I didn’t want to write a book about eating Ben and Jerry’s while Facebook-stalking my ex . . . delicious as that era was! So I started thinking about other aspects of this character’s life—like her job in publishing—that might see her through the darkness.

When I found a professional crisis to echo her personal crisis, it made me laugh. I’ve never written a comedy before, but this story refused to take itself too seriously. I mean, being dumped on the most romantic trip of your life is pretty funny.

Do you feel you are like Lanie in certain ways? How did you come to craft her character?

To prepare for this book, I cringed my way through diaries from that decade of my life. The details—a woman working passionately in publishing, dating thrilling but all-wrong men, summoning friends to emergency brunches, and seeking advice from a well-dressed grandmother—were there to be lifted, but I didn’t intend to make Lanie as deeply me as she became on the page.

Autobiography has never appealed to me. Fiction is making stuff up. But this story demanded it. Then again, if Lanie is me, she’s me from a bygone era, not me now, with two kids and a mortgage. I was glad to go back and visit her.

New York City is such a presence in this story that it almost feels like a character in and of itself. Where did you pull inspiration when crafting this setting and all the specific places Noa and Lanie visit?

Like Lanie, I showed up in Manhattan with a duffel bag and a dream. I was young and broke, which cast a glamor on the city. When mere existence is hard-won, the places you visit, like the Gapstow Bridge, feel legitimately magical.

Living in a great city changes you; I’ve gone through a metamorphosis each time I’ve moved to one. Lanie is evolving because of changes in her life, yes, but also, more simply, because she’s part of pulsing, vital place like New York.

What was your favorite scene in the novel, and why?

Lanie’s first in-person meeting with Noa Callaway. She goes into the scene so earnest and enthusiastic, wearing her grandmother’s Fendi suit. She ends up having an existential crisis in public and throwing her career and personal life into chaos. It’s IRL gone majorly awry. And after a long quarantine of online-only encounters, I can relate.

What do you feel lies at the heart of Lanie’s and Noa’s characters? What do you think is the true success to any relationship?