Interview with Irene Zutell

This past week the headlines were dominated by a story of an acclaimed American actress who was blindsided by her husband's infidelity. The mass media, ignoring important issues like the healthcare debate in Washington, focused its efforts instead on uncovering every possible detail of this salacious story.

But what if it was the other way around? What if the famous American starlet, an absolute bombshell -- beautiful, talented and rich -- had an affair with and ended up marrying the cheating husband of the average American woman? And what if, in this story, the media cast the actress, not as a home-wrecker, but a determined, professional woman fulfilling her destiny of living happily ever after?

Well, this is the true story that inspired the new novel Pieces of Happily Ever After by acclaimed author Irene Zutell, whose neighbor was caught up in a similar media flurry when she was left by her husband for a beautiful A-list actress (find out who in the interview below). After failed attempts at urging her neighbor to share her story in print, Zutell, a former People magazine writer and author of the critically-acclaimed roman à clef, They're Not Your Friends, decided to explore the issue herself in her fiction.  

In the book, we meet Alice Hirsch, wife of a Hollywood entertainment lawyer Alex Hirsch, who is suddenly caught up in a major tabloid sex scandal involving her husband and his new client, box-office queen Rose Maris. Unfortunately for Alice, this is just one of the many challenges suddenly plaguing the former New Yorker as tries to navigate her way back to happiness in the suburbs of Los Angeles --  including a mother with Alzheimer’s, her precocious 5-year-old daughter, the sudden reappearance of a college sweetheart, a charming paparazzo who wants more than just pictures, and a host of divorcees and other odd characters who make Pieces of Happily Ever After a funny and thoughtful page-turner that both readers and reviewers are calling addictive.
 

Pieces of Happily Ever After by Irene Zutell is the first official selection of the new SheKnows Book Club from SheKnows.com and is available now in bookstores and online. To learn more about Irene Zutell, visit her official website.

I recently had the chance to interview the author about her work and her life. Please take a few more minutes and check out the interview at my site The LA books Examiner.