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Sally Hepworth Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Sally Hepworth

Sally Hepworth

Sally Hepworth Biography

Sally Hepworth is the bestselling author of six novels, most recently The Mother In Law (2019) which has been optioned by actress, Amy Poehler, for television. Her latest novel, The Good Sister is available in early 2021.

Drawing on the good, the bad and the downright odd of human behaviour, Sally writes incisively about family, relationships and identity. Her domestic thriller novels are laced with quirky humour, sass and a darkly charming tone. Sally's novels are available worldwide in English and have been translated into 20 languages. She lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and three children.

Sally Hepworth's website

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Interview

Sally Hepworth discusses The Secrets of Midwives, which tells the story of three generations of women devoted to delivering new life into the world - and the secrets they keep that threaten to change their own lives forever.

How did you come to write the book?

There is a saying among writers "Write the book you want to read." That's what I did. Being the mother of young children (and pregnant while I wrote book), I was finding myself drawn to novels such as The Birth House by Ami McKay and Midwives by Chris Bohjalian. I have always thought there was a certain magic to midwifery—for a while, after I left high school, I even considered becoming a midwife. So, when it came time to start a novel, there was no choice to make.

I researched for months before I wrote a word. While I knew I was going to write about midwives, I had no idea what the actual story would be. I had a suspicion it would involve a mother and a daughter—particularly when I found out I was carrying a daughter—but it wasn't until I read some fascinating stories about midwifery in the 1940s and 50s that Floss's character (a grandmother) was born.

For me, the best plots start with a question, and the question I landed on for this book was: "Why would a woman hide the identity of her baby's father?" I like books that have a big upheaval really early on—a "call to action" for the readers—so I knew that by the end of the first ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Sally Hepworth at BookBrowse
The Good Sister jacket The Mother-in-Law jacket The Family Next Door jacket The Things We Keep jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Sally Hepworth but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Elizabeth Berg

    Elizabeth Berg

    Elizabeth Berg is the author of many bestselling novels, including Open House (an Oprah's Book Club selection), Talk Before Sleep, and The Year of Pleasures, as well as the short story collection The Day I Ate Whatever I... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Things We Keep

    Try:
    Never Change
    by Elizabeth Berg

  • Deborah Carol Gang

    Deborah Carol Gang

    The short fiction of Deborah Carol Gang has been published in Literarymama, Bluestem Journal and The Driftless Review.

    Her poetry has appeared in JJournal/CUNY, New Verse News, The Michigan Poet, Arsenic Lobster, and The ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Things We Keep

    Try:
    The Half-Life of Everything
    by Deborah Carol Gang

We recommend 8 similar authors

View all 8 Read-Alikes

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