Making it Up

Authors of fiction are often asked, “How much of what you write comes from your own life?” This is especially the case for Penelope Lively, whose celebrated works such as The Photographand the Booker Prize-winning Moon Tigerring so true that they seem to tread that fine line between fact and fiction.

Making It Upis Lively’s engrossing and deftly constructed response. What if her family’s escape from Egypt during World War II had a different outcome? What would her life have been like if she’d become pregnant at eighteen? Or if she had married someone else?

As Lively weaves through very plausible hesitations, choices, and definitive moments of a life, she also offers a meditation on the nature of fate, destiny, and choice. An examination of those junctures when a split-second decision can change everything, Making It Upis a striking testament to Lively’s distinctive gifts and a rare opportunity to glimpse how real life can inspire great fiction.