Stroke of genius: Chris Bohjalian’s ‘The Amateur’ proves the author is anything but.

On this episode of Fully Booked, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Chris Bohjalian joins us to discuss The Amateur (Doubleday, Aug. 4). “An accident at the golf course cuts short one life and totally upends another,” Kirkus writes in a starred review of a riveting psychological drama that nods to Lolita (and so much more). It’s “Nabokov’s classic reinvented as a 1970s moral fable, with brilliantly developed characters and period detail.”

Bohjalian is the bestselling author of 25 books, including his most recent, The Jackal’s Mistress, as well as The Lioness, Hour of the Witch, Midwives, and The Flight Attendant, which was made into an HBO Max limited series starring Kaley Cuoco. His work has been translated into more than 35 languages. He is also a playwright (The Club, Midwives, Wingspan), and he lives in Vermont.

Eighteen-year-old golf prodigy Mira Winston had it made in the summer of ’78: ruling the course at her local country club, in a sleepy suburb of New York, heading to Yale in the fall. But when a ball she hits sails through the club’s practice net, killing caddy and classmate Kenny Foster, her stroke of bad luck sets in motion a series of unfortunate events.

Here’s a bit more from our starred review: “Mira doesn’t matriculate at Yale, she never plays golf again, and in an unexpected twist, it’s revealed to one and all that she’s been having an affair with a man named Theo Catton, who’s her father’s age, and with whom she’s been involved since she was 15.…As the small-town drama simmers, as Mira and her parents self-medicate with drugs and alcohol, as Mira eventually comes to trial…a marvelous 11th-hour twist and a satisfying denouement lie ahead. It’s hard to think of any reason not to call this a perfect novel: a hole in one.”

In an unforgettable conversation, Bohjalian tells me why he had more fun writing The Amateur than any of his other books, which characteristics he and Mira share, and what he loves about writing from a woman’s perspective. We talk about caddying, disco dancing, why dread is his jam, and much more.

At the end of our interview, Bohjalian recommends a recent novel he calls “the single best novel ever written about 9/11.” Follow @kirkus_reviews on Instagram, DM us the title of that book, along with your email and location, and you’ll be entered in a drawing to receive a $100 Visa gift card, courtesy of Kirkus. The giveaway is open to legal residents of the U.S. who have reached 18 years of age or older at the time of entry.

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Fully Booked is produced by Jessica Lockhart and Megan Labrise.