Writing in Public: Elizabeth Harris on politics in novels, writing when you can, and losing the threads of ourselves
All about my very fun first read of 2025
How To Sleep At Night by Elizabeth Harris is the first book I finished in 2025 and it was a great way to start my reading year. I have never understood readers’ desire to shy away from political novels because politics are part of life and novels are the art form that most completely encapsulate the human experience. Harris’s debut novel is a perfect example of that sentiment. While the backdrop of the novel is a political campaign, this isn’t a book about politics. It’s a book about family, friendship, and love—and the burning existential question of just what makes us who we really are. It’s also a book that offers humor and hope, which are two things I’m looking for in my reading these days.
The book begins with a bang when Gabe’s husband Ethan tells him he wants to run for Congress—as a Republican. Gabe is a liberal high school teacher whose life is completely upended by Ethan’s decision—not just because of the long hours and infrequency of family dinners, but because of what his friends and colleagues now assume about his beliefs. The novel also follows Ethan’s sister Kate, a political reporter who must stay far away from her brother’s campaign. Kate is navigating her own relationship drama as a woman from her past unexpectedly reenters her life.
One of the things I loved most about How To Sleep At Night is that it reads in some ways like a juicy page turner. Once I got oriented in the characters’ lives, I didn’t want to put this book down. And the drama keeps coming! But unlike a lot of books that can be described as juicy or dramatic, Elizabeth takes the ethical implications of her characters’ choices very seriously. It gives the book a certain weight without ever bogging the reader down.
I was curious how Elizabeth managed this balancing act and she graciously agreed to answer some of my questions about her debut novel as well as her work reporting on books and publishing for The New York Times.
You can keep up with Elizabeth’s journalism work here and purchase How To Sleep At Night in print, ebook, or audiobook wherever you get your books. It’s out in the world today!
Sara Hildreth: Can you share a brief set-up of How To Sleep At Night for those who haven't yet read it?
Elizabeth Harris: How To Sleep At Night is about marriage and family and what happens when who we are in the world doesn’t match how we see ourselves. It follows a woman who has become a stay-at-home mom by accident and it’s a terrible fit for her. There’s a woman whose career is her entire life, but it’s a job she’s come to dread and resent. And then there are two men who are married: one is a Democrat, one is a Republican, and as the book begins, the Republican decides to run for office.
SH: How did the idea for the novel first come to you? Did some characters’ storylines develop first or did the whole story develop simultaneously?
EH: There are several couples in my extended family who disagree politically with their own spouses. Over the last few years, I’ve watched as what used to be an annoyance that flared around elections has become a lot more stressful for them to navigate. But they’re all still married, and I wondered how they did it. Then I started thinking, what would happen if one of these people ran for office? Their spouse would become famous for views they detest, and the most difficult part of their relationship would become, at least temporarily, the center of their lives.
From there, I started thinking about other ways we can lose the thread of our own stories. That’s a pretty universal feeling, the sense that the world doesn’t see us the way we want to be seen, and it can be tricky figuring out a way through that. At a minimum, this is something people tend to run into at times of major transitions, like when we graduate from college and are trying to figure out how to be an adult in the world. Midlife is another big time for this. At that point, a lot of people look around and see a chasm between where they are and where they expected to be.
SH: I really loved the opening of the book and how it’s almost bookended in the closing lines. Being the spouse of a politician seems genuinely terrible! How early in your writing process did you know you wanted to begin and end in this way?
EH: Thank you! That opening was in place pretty early on, but the end I didn’t figure out until I’d gone through quite a few drafts. I tend to write quicky and then edit myself heavily throughout many, many (many) drafts. I could tell the ending wasn’t quite working, but it took a while to hit on the final note. And that’s okay!
From there, I started thinking about other ways we can lose the thread of our own stories. That’s a pretty universal feeling, the sense that the world doesn’t see us the way we want to be seen, and it can be tricky figuring out a way through that.
SH: This is a novel that doesn’t shy away from politics. Why did you want to center your story around a political campaign and why do you think it’s important to explore politics in fiction?
EH: Dropping a campaign into the middle of this family was a way to explore the divisions we’re all facing. But the campaign is just a backdrop. The novel doesn’t spend time on political rallies or election strategy. I didn’t want to write a book about politics, I wanted to write a book about relationships and family, and how we might muddle our way through our division.
I would love it if this book would give people a little bit of hope. I also just want people to enjoy reading it, so I tried to make it a good ride.
SH: I really appreciated that while the book can certainly be described as juicy, you take the ethics of all of the characters’ decisions seriously. How did you go about striking the balance between the drama and the big ideas?
EH: When I started writing, I had these ideas I wanted to explore, I had three characters I wanted to follow, and I had one important rule in mind: Never be boring! Every page had to move the story forward. If anything slowed the story down, I cut it.
If it’s not a good read, no one is going to think about the big ideas because they’ll put the book down.
SH: There were a lot of wonderful surprises in How To Sleep At Night! The humor is so authentic to the characters and really lands. The descriptions of parenting were some of the most true to life I’ve read. There are some interesting tidbits about working for a newspaper. And then there was Fang of course! What were the most fun parts of the book to write? What were the hardest?
EH: I had so much fun writing this book that it’s hard to choose! But I would say I had the most fun writing the kids. Parenthood is such a strange, hard, wonderful, absurd thing. All of sudden, there are these tiny people in your house that you’re responsible for keeping alive. The next day, you blink, and they’re marching around your apartment demanding snacks. They curl up in a cardboard box to read a book. They make crowns out of treasure they find in the recycling. I have two kids and they are constantly surprising me, and a good surprise is the key to a funny story.
Also, I loved Fang! (He is a pet snake.) But this is fiction. In real life, I do not love snakes.
But now, every time I get a pitch about someone else’s book (and I get a lot of them…), I stop. I try not to rush through it. Because that email represents years of someone’s life and, probably, one of the greatest dreams they’ve ever had.
SH: What is it like to go from writing about books to writing a book? Did you have any of what you’ve covered from the world of books and publishing in mind as you wrote?
EH: I actually tried not to think about any of that while writing. Two of the most striking things I’ve learned about publishing while covering the business are a) how hard it is to get a book published in the first place, and b) if you do manage to get that far, how incredibly difficult it is to get a book to take off. The odds are long every step of the way. So when I sat down to write, I just tried to enjoy the process. That way, if the book never got further than my own laptop, I still would have had fun doing it.
SH: In spite of having written extensively about book publishing, did anything about the publishing process still take you by surprise?
EH: This wasn’t a surprise, but I definitely have a deeper appreciation of just how much it takes to write a book, and how emotional the whole thing is for authors— both writing and putting their book out into the world. I knew this, of course. I think all readers know it. But now, every time I get a pitch about someone else’s book (and I get a lot of them…), I stop. I try not to rush through it. Because that email represents years of someone’s life and, probably, one of the greatest dreams they’ve ever had.
SH: More generally, how do you think your journalism background influenced your approach to writing this novel?
EH: I’ve been a reporter at The New York Times for 15 years, and during that time, I’ve written more than 1,300 stories. I’ve written articles on subway platforms, in restaurants, on park benches and in public school gyms. Stories have to be written when they have to be written—and fast. This kind of writing is like a muscle; the more you do it, the easier it gets.
When I started writing How To Sleep At Night, I had a busy full time job and two young kids. But my training definitely helped me sit down and write in whatever time I could find.
Journalism also trains you to keep your writing tight – crucial to my “don’t be boring” rule! Towards the end of the editing process, I decided the book had gotten too long, and with my editor’s blessing, I cut more than 15,000 words. I think it made the book a lot better.
SH: Do you have any book recommendations for FictionMatters readers?
EH: One book I haven’t read yet, but is on the top of my pile, is Tilda Is Visible by Jane Tara.
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Happy reading!
Sara
This sounds so great, thanks for this interview!