Much of My One & Only takes place during an impromptu road trip. Nick and Harper, long divorced, are thrown together at a destination wedding as best man and maid of honor. When travel plans fall apart, they’re forced to drive together across the Northern Plains.
Imagine that””being stuck in the car with the last person you’d want to talk to. Your first love. The one who broke your heart and ruined you, at least temporarily, for all others. Oh, the humanity! The tension! The snarky one-liners, the reluctant trips down Memory Lane.
The trip begins just after the wedding, which takes place at Glacier National Park, quite possibly the most beautiful place on earth. From there, Nick and Harper head east, back to New York and Massachusetts, their home states. But here’s the thing, folks. There’s not a lot out there on the Great Plains of Montana and North Dakota. The route Harper and Nick take is flat, straight and sprinkled only occasionally with a small town. But it’s beautiful, too. Small towns are a great love of mine (best hamburger of my life was in Murdo, SD, population 533).
That being said, two people in a car for 10 hours a day might be a little wearying, so this was a natural place for the reader to learn how Nick and Harper arrived at this moment. How they met, why they married so young, why it was so good, and how it went south so quickly”¦and what’s still left after all this time.
I especially love the scene in Harold, North Dakota, one of the most revealing chapters of the book. When they have to stop for the night in Harold during the town’s Harvest Festival, they’re finally at the point where a few things can be said””things that have been waiting to be said, perhaps, for all these years.
But most journey-style books end with a homecoming, and I loved bringing Harper back to New York, the site of her brief, unhappy marriage”¦and even more, I loved bringing Nick to Martha’s Vineyard. Nick and Harper are different after their time together. They’ve learned a lot about how they’ve changed, and how they’re still the same”¦and why they just might be able to make it this time around.
Hope you’ll like the book, gang! Thanks so much for having me.
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