What’s not to love about the dramatic web of international espionage? The multi-talented writer (and lecturer in law at Columbia Law School) Lea Carpenter uses it as the eco-system for her third novel, Ilium. Its young English protagonist has an uneventful life in London until, on her 21st birthday, she becomes enamored with a mysterious, much-older man. Their marriage is only the first in a series of unexpected events that make for addictive reading. Carpenter’s immersive prose is a known quantity to her fans, who discovered an exciting new voice in the world of fiction when this former magazine editor published her debut, Eleven Days, in 2013. Carpenter is also a stylish presence in New York’s literary scene, and herewith, she shares her key components to the good life. —Ashley Baker
Airline: British Airways.
Airport: The little landing strip on Fishers Island. Wild, short, and incapable of accommodating anything too large.
Alibi: “One of the children has a math test and needs my help.”
App: Duolingo.
Bag: Métier.
Bedtime: Early.
Bike: A white Cervélo.
Car: If I had one, an old, restored Land Rover Defender.
Child: One who answers my texts.
Couple: Ned and Carroll Carpenter.
Date: A sports game with my husband.
Dream dress: I will know it when I see it.
Drive: To my childhood home at Christmastime.
Escape: Utah in winter; Italy in summer.
Excuse: Again, the math test.
Family: All love and forgiveness.
Flaw: One that can be an asset.
Foil: Andrew Scott’s Moriarty on Sherlock.
Friend: A loyal one.
Good-bye:
Where you keep looking back.
Hideaway: Not telling.
Hotel: The Çirağan, in Istanbul.
Indulgence: Salt.
Insult: “That was ambitious.”
Kiss-off: “No, thank you.”
Last Meal: A baked potato with everything.
Match: Federer versus Nadal or Buckley versus Vidal.
Movie: Lawrence of Arabia.
Name: Edmund.
Nonfiction book: The Fifth Act, by Elliot Ackerman.
Novel: Democracy, by Joan Didion.
PetS: Our three dogs.
Podcast: SmartLess.
President: Josiah Bartlett on The West Wing, especially after the monologue in the episode “Two Cathedrals.”
Restaurant: The River Cafe in London.
Saying: “Good grief.”
SHOES: White Nikes.
Singer: Mick Jagger.
Spouse: Mine.
Storm: Snow.
STREET: The Mall in London.
Television series: Friday Night Lights.
Time of day: Dawn.
Victim: The one who pretends not to be one.
View: Happy, healthy children.
Wake-up time: Later.
Weekend Read: Air Mail.
Work of art: Cy Twombly’s Fifty Days at Iliam.
writing Implement: Pens from European hotels.
Lea’s Essentials
