NPR

Paula Hawkins Prepares To Dive 'Into The Water'

Author Paula Hawkins was down on her luck when her 2015 book The Girl on the Train became a smash hit. Now she's grappling with success and preparing to launch her followup, Into the Water.
<em>Into The Water</em> by Paula Hawkins

Paula Hawkins' 2015 book — The Girl on the Train — was a massive bestseller. A tense domestic thriller with a boozy, unstable narrator, it caught the imagination of a reading public desperate for the kinds of dark deeds and desperate women Gillian Flynn pioneered in Gone Girl a few years earlier.

Back then, Hawkins was down on her luck after a string of unsuccessful romantic comedies written under a pen name — now, she's one of the highest-paid authors in the world. So how do you follow up that kind of smash?

Hawkins is about publish a new book, , about a small English town with hasn't really changed her, but it hasn't been easy, either. She's happiest when she's just left alone to write, and alone time can be scarce when you're a number one bestseller.

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