What is it actually like owning a bookstore?
an interview with the iconic Emma Straub: on her latest novel, bookstore life, her love of boybands & writing escapism for adults.
INT. BOOKS ARE MAGIC – BACK STORAGE ROOM – DAY
Picture this. It’s November 2025 and I’m slightly flustered from still trying to understand the New York City subway system. I arrive at the beautiful indie bookstore BOOKS ARE MAGIC in Brooklyn Heights, Montague Street. I am going to be in conversation at the store with fellow writer Aminatou Sow in the evening about my new novel TABLE FOR ONE. It is a dream come true to be doing events in New York about my novels — I can feel my younger self glowing inside.
The co-owner of BOOKS ARE MAGIC (with her husband Mike) is the beloved New York Times bestselling novelist Emma Straub, and she has made some time to meet me before my event. She has a new novel out in April. We go into the back storage room and I record our conversation on my phone. We discussed Emma’s new novel, her love of boybands, her life as a writer and what it was like seeing her book featured on The White Lotus. Hope you enjoy our conversation!
In conversation with Emma Straub
EMMA STRAUB: I love your dress. I didn’t properly compliment you. I didn’t take it all in. It’s very good.
EMMA GANNON: I feel like in New York, you can dress up, and no one really looks at you. Whereas in London, I feel like everyone is like, why are you so dressed up? I don’t know. It’s great, this New York energy.
Big congratulations, Emma, on your wonderful new novel American Fantasy! We’ve got your main protagonist, Annie, newly divorced, who is on a cruise ship for the themed reunion tour for a band she used to love in the late 80s. She encounters Keith, the slightly depressed, fifty-something lead singer from the band. From the minute I opened the novel, I was like, oh, I’m in for some fun here.
EMMA S: The previous book to this one was all about my father dying, and, I mean it was excruciating to write. I cried every day, and I just wanted, needed to give myself pleasure. And for better or worse, one of the things in life that brings me just obscene pleasure is the New Kids on the Block. I wanted to run toward pleasure in writing this book, and I wanted it to be fun to read. I just thought, let me do this for myself and for anyone else who needs it. Did you watch the Boyzone documentary series?
EMMA G: Yes. It was amazing. I hope it wins awards.
EMMA S: I wept. You know, loving boybands—it’s so fun, right? But the other truth of this book is that I actually have spent probably too much of my adult life really wondering what it’s like on the inside of these machines. What is it like to be in one of these groups where you are.. not kidnapped.. but basically. You’re separated from your family for huge amounts of time, and you grow up under the auspices of someone, you know, there’s usually a sort of creepy man—or not always creepy, but like, predatory in some way—whether it’s financial or sexual or whatever, who’s sort of in charge of you and then you have the blaring adoration from the outside while you’re still developing your brain. And then, the big crowds go away, but you still haven’t quite grown up. And you’re still stuck with these four schmucks who you got put together with when you were 14.
*Emma’s husband, who also owns Books Are Magic comes in*
EMMA S: This is Emma. This is my husband, Michael. We’re podcasting!
EMMA G: Lovely to meet you!
EMMA G: I love the themes in this book. Annie befriends one of the boyband members on the cruise. We have these themes about aging and fame, I feel like both of them are on a similar journey. What it’s like to be a woman aging, and then also to be like a man who had loads of adoration in the past, like you say. I saw a video of Justin Timberlake on stage recently, and, you know, he’s not young anymore, he can’t be who he was in his twenties. We have to find a new 'you’.
EMMA S: They are the only men who I actually think know what it feels like to be a woman. If you’re a man in a boyband, then you absolutely are thinking about your jaw line and your hairline and your waistline, because you know that people are looking at you and judging you.
EMMA G: On the novel format: I love how each chapter is on a different cruise deck. Such a fun way of delivering it in stylistically. How did you plan the novel out?