You can start your day over anytime.

Maggie Shipstead takes hold of the reader and doesn't let go. Astonish Me is a haunting, powerful novel.

Courage is more important than confidence

I started realising that the themes running through all of my novels were really haunting and obsessing me about my own life.

It's not gender-specific, but I do think it's women who tend to start having that sort of little whispering voice of "I want more here" and "I want more for my family."

What's more important that spiritual life? It seems to me it's the bedrock of everything essential about being human.

If I dismiss the ordinary—waiting for the special, the extreme, the extraordinary to happen - I may just miss my life.