Laurie Frankel- Enormous Wings (Podcast)

Laurie Frankel- Enormous Wings on Book Gang Podcast

Laurie Frankel joins Book Gang to discuss Enormous Wings, a bold, bighearted novel about aging, autonomy, and the messiness of modern family life.

Laurie Frankel joins Book Gang to discuss Enormous Wings, a bold, bighearted novel about aging, autonomy, and the messiness of modern family life.This week’s Book Gang conversation welcomes New York Times bestselling author Laurie Frankel, whose latest novel delivers a juicy book club premise wrapped in the chaos and warmth of a multigenerational Jewish family. When breast cancer survivor Pepper Mills loses her home and independence, she’s thrown into a new world at Vista View Retirement Community—only to face the unimaginable: a pregnancy at seventy-seven, and a gauntlet of opinions from loved ones, doctors, and the wider world.

In this lively, surprising conversation, we discuss:

Radically ordinary desires: Frankel unpacks the inspiration behind Pepper’s late-life pregnancy, exploring how aging, romance, and reproductive choice are rendered with empathy and humor. We talk about the importance of portraying older women’s desires as deeply human, never tragic or comedic.
Family, autonomy, and the messiness of care: We dive into the family dynamics at the heart of Enormous Wings—how adult children can both rally around and inadvertently bulldoze their parents in the name of safety, and why there’s no right way to navigate the complexities of midlife and elder care.
The riotous specificity of family: Frankel shares how she builds such vivid, lived-in characters—like grandkids who speak in emojis and National Coming Apart Day—without losing the emotional core. We discuss the joys and challenges of balancing humor, tradition, and heart in a story that celebrates both individuality and belonging.

Books With Older Protagonists from MomAdvice.com

BONUS WEEKLY BOOK LIST: 60 Books with Older Protagonists—stories that prove life’s boldest chapters can begin at any age. Patrons can grab a printable checklist for their next reading spree!

Enormous Wings Book Summary

From the beloved New York Times bestselling author Laurie Frankel, an exuberant and timely new novel

At seventy-seven, Pepper Mills is too old to be a stranger in a strange land. She didn’t choose the Vista View Retirement Community of Austin, Texas—that would be her three grown children—but when she grudgingly moves in, she not only makes new friends, she falls in love. Then the exhaustion, vomiting, and confusion start. She fears it’s cancer, dementia, a stroke. But a raft of tests later, the news is even more shocking: She’s pregnant.

As word gets out, everyone wants a piece of her: the press and paparazzi, activists and medical researchers, belly-rubbers and rubber-neckers all descending on Vista View while Pepper struggles to determine her next move. Soon she has some hard decisions to make—and some she’s not allowed to make.

Enormous Wings is an urgent novel about female agency and bodily autonomy, morality and mortality. It’s about what happens when you don’t get to choose anymore. It’s about motherhood and family, sex and love and friendship, and how those bedrocks—even so late in the day—can still change, and then change everything.

Laurie Frankel (Author Photo- Enormous Wings)

Meet Laurie Frankel

Laurie Frankel is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of Family Family, One Two Three, Goodbye for Now, The Atlas of Love, and the Reese’s Book Club Pick This Is How It Always Is. She lives in Seattle with her husband, daughter, and border collie. Enormous Wings is available now from Henry Holt & Co.

Laurie Frankel is Exploring Autonomy At Any Age (Enormous Wings)

Laurie Frankel- Enormous Wings (Podcast)

Enormous Wings Book Summary

Meet Laurie Frankel

Laurie Frankel is Exploring Autonomy At Any Age (Enormous Wings)

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