The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

by Taylor Jenkins Reid

You don’t have to make yourself OK for a good mother; a good mother makes herself OK for you.

I finished the edits on this book days before my daughter was born. I was thinking so much about what it meant to be a mother, what sort of mother I wanted to be. Seeing this quote now, I’m reminded of something Billy Dunne says at the end of Daisy Jones and The Six about being a parent, too. My daughter was just a few months old when I wrote that one. But the sentiment continued. At the time I think I thought this line Monique says was a small thing. But I can see now that it was the beginning of what will be a decades long (life long?) question for me. What does it mean to be a parent? And that makes me happy. Because it means there’s always more to ask and thus, eventually, more to say. Thank you so much for reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Like Evelyn, I have many different types of great loves in my life. But there is no doubt she is one of mine. I am so fortunate that I have been given the opportunity to create her, and then, because of her, Daisy Jones, and Nina Riva, and Carrie Soto. It has been the biggest surprise and joy of my career to have written these four women. xo, TJR