Ask a Bookseller: ‘Enormous Wings’ by Laurie Frankel

Are you ready to believe a few impossible things? If so, Sue Zumberge of SubText Bookstore in St. Paul recommends the novel “Enormous Wings” by Laurie Frankel. “The moment I mention that it is about a 77-year-old woman who becomes pregnant, people sort of back away from me,” Zumberge said. “I think it is best described by the epigraph at the beginning of the book, which is from Hilary Mantel's book, ‘Mirror and Light.’ ‘We know it is impossible. The question is, who can best endure impossibility?’” The novel follows Pepper Mills, who moves into a retirement home at her grown children’s insistence. There, she falls in love with another resident and, to the shock of everyone, becomes pregnant. They live in Texas, and a doctor threatens Pepper’s children and their livelihoods if she should seek an abortion. Zumberge said this novel makes an excellent summer read, with themes that feel both timeless and urgent: “our relationship with our family, our relationship with our partners, our ability to make our own choices—not just about keeping a pregnancy, but whether we are able to live on our own.” “The important aspect of this book is that it opens us, through this impossible scenario, to so many other possibilities within our lives. It is a beautiful book.”