Will Woman Tremaine Be the Largest E-book of 2026?

Final month, after I learn Rachel Hochhauser’s Woman Tremaine — a reimagining of Cinderella from the angle of her stepmother — I used to be blown away. Within the novel, Woman Tremaine pulled herself out of poverty as a youngster; however now, middle-aged, twice-widowed and again in debt, she wants to search out her two daughters safe marriages earlier than they find yourself on the streets. Additionally on her to-do record? Caring for an ungrateful stepdaughter, looking rabbits for dinner, and retaining their leaky home from fairly actually falling down.

Woman Tremaine flips all the things on its head — the basic Cinderella fairy story, after all, but in addition how we view ladies and moms, by way of historical past, literature, and nonetheless at this time. (Living proof: on Huge Salad, I shared how the e book led me to a serious relationship realization.) Reese Witherspoon simply selected the novel for her e book membership, and I can already envision the film on the large display screen. Right here, I spoke to Rachel about her dramatic backstory, favourite sentence, and parenting realization…

First issues first: What impressed you to write down about Cinderella’s stepmother?
The backstory is extra dramatic than you may assume. In 2023, my husband couldn’t get away from bed — he had vertigo, he was throwing up on a regular basis, he misplaced 35 kilos. We didn’t know what was happening. Finally we discovered that he wanted emergency mind surgical procedure. The restoration was brutal, and we have been spending a lot time within the hospital. At some point, within the ready room, I used to be scrolling by way of my cellphone and was stopped in my tracks by a cartoon picture of Cinderella’s evil stepmother.

Why did that picture soar out at you?
On the time, I used to be a caregiver. I used to be caring for my husband, solo-parenting our toddler, and dealing full time. Once I checked out Cinderella’s stepmother, I didn’t see a villain. I noticed a mom who was doing what she wanted to do to deal with her household.

What a shocking realization.
That seed obtained beneath my pores and skin. I couldn’t cease fascinated with it, I felt compelled and referred to as to the story.

Had been you first launched to the story by watching the Disney film as a child?
Sure, and I used to be enthralled. Even now, after I consider the enduring animation, the set design, the dimensions of it, I really feel very taken with it. The fascinating factor is, I’m making an attempt to re-message the story round Cinderella, but it surely’s additionally a love letter to Cinderella.

One pleasant a part of studying the novel was recognizing basic Cinderella scenes — for instance, she comes down carrying an previous blue gown, and the stepsisters contact it and it rips.
It was actually enjoyable to play with the acquainted plot factors however defy expectations and make U-turns. Then the second half of the e book explodes that world.

Woman Tremaine has two daughters, after all, plus her stepdaughter. In your novel, she finally ends up realizing that she must guardian every of them otherwise. That was a wonderful and profound second.
You go into parenting with a number of expectations — what it’s going to appear to be, how your children are going to be. However children come out who they’re, and that’s been an important lesson for me. Parenting is a violation of expectations time and again, on a small and huge scale, and you’ll’t guardian any two children the identical approach.

The novel additionally feels cinematic — you possibly can clearly image the grassy fields, the crumbling home, the village market. What background analysis did you do?
The novel’s very a lot in dialog with the western European model of Cinderella, but it surely isn’t truly set in a selected time interval or place. So, it was a little bit of a get-out-of-jail-free card for me; I wished it to learn like historic fiction however I didn’t must be hyper-specific about what life appeared like in England in 1797. As a substitute, I researched a broader swath of time — I learn the diaries of 18th-century ladies, etiquette books for girls, fiction written throughout that point… Since Woman Tremaine has a falcon, I learn previous falconry manuals and took hen workshops. Helen Macdonald’s H Is For Hawk is an beautiful e book.

How did you determine on the quilt?
Ninety-nine p.c of authors don’t get to decide on their covers, however I did get to supply suggestions and St. Martin’s Press was fantastic about listening. We initially had totally different florals, however I requested, may we ever use one thing from the world of the e book? I despatched over photos by Clara Peeters, one of many few feminine Dutch Golden Age painters. I didn’t truly know you could possibly do that, however St. Martin’s used the flowers from her portray for the quilt! I LOVED that. They’re not simply fairly florals, they’re from a lady who was forward of her time and doing one thing totally different.

You now have two daughters — ages one and 4. Had been you fascinated with them as you wrote?
Sure. The ending virtually reads like a letter to younger ladies, to my daughters. My favourite sentence is the final sentence: ‘You are the scariest factor within the woods.’

Thanks a lot, Rachel! Woman Tremaine is a pressure.

P.S. Extra favourite books, and Kate Baer’s motherhood poems make me chortle and cry.