First published 2020
In 1971, Hillary Rodham meets Bill Clinton at Yale Law School. Both are ambitious law students, but Bill already has his political future mapped out in Arkansas. Hillary feels the pull of their connection, but she also senses the cost of following him south. When Bill pressures her to join him in Arkansas, Hillary makes a choice that changes everything. She ends their relationship and strikes out on her own. Over the next four decades, Hillary builds a political career without Bill Clinton's name or shadow. She runs for office, navigates the brutal world of politics as a woman, and crosses paths with Bill repeatedly as their careers unfold in parallel. Sittenfeld imagines how Hillary's life might have unfolded if she had chosen ambition over love, independence over partnership. The novel explores the prices women pay for power and the roads not taken that define us all.
Genres: american-fiction, historical-fiction, contemporary, biographical-fiction, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, parallel-lives
Setting: Arkansas, Yale Law School
Period: 1971
420 pages · Hardcover · Random House