Impersonation

"A novel that wrestles with the ways that women are hamstrung by maternal demands and social expectations, showing the impossibility of doing it all, as a single mother is hired to ghostwrite a memoir for an aspiring politician and it takes both of them combined to be the ideal successful woman"--
Professional ghostwriter and single mother Allie Lang gets more than she bargained for when she is hired to write a biography for Lana Breban—a powerhouse lawyer, economist and advocate for women’s rights with designs on elected office. 35,000 first printing.
&;By turns revealing, hilarious, dishy, and razor-sharp, Impersonation lives in that rarest of sweet spots: the propulsive page-turner for people with high literary standards.&; &;Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers Allie Lang is a professional ghostwriter and a perpetually broke single mother to a young boy. Years of navigating her own and America&;s cultural definitions of motherhood have left her a lapsed idealist. Lana Breban is a powerhouse lawyer, economist, and advocate for women&;s rights with designs on elected office. She also has a son. Lana and her staff have decided she needs help softening her public image and that a memoir about her life as a mother will help. When Allie lands the job as Lana&;s ghostwriter, it seems as if things will finally go Allie&;s way. At last, she thinks, there will be enough money not just to pay her bills but to actually buy a house. After years of working as a ghostwriter for other celebrities, Allie believes she knows the drill: she has learned how to inhabit the lives of others and tell their stories better than they can. But this time, everything becomes more complicated. Allie&;s childcare arrangements unravel; she falls behind on her rent; her subject, Lana, is better at critiquing than actually providing material; and Allie&;s boyfriend decides to go on a road trip toward self-discovery. But as a writer for hire, Allie has gotten too used to being accommodating. At what point will she speak up for all that she deserves? A satirical, incisive snapshot of how so many of us now live, Impersonation tells a timely, insightful, and bitingly funny story of ambition, motherhood, and class.