Hey, I'm Alyssa Adwarnie, filling in for Andrew Limbong, and this is NPR's book of the day.

What makes a happy life?

In the new novel Go Gentle, author Maria Semple's main character is content with life.

In her 50s, Adora Hazard has embraced a philosophy to only worry about what she can control,

and the rest, it's left up to fate.

But as the story goes, a surprised love interest ends up leading her down a different, darker path of mystery and crime.

The detour challenges her idea of stoicism, a topic sample tells NPR's Scott Simon, has fascinated her for over a decade.

Adora Hazard is a stoic philosopher. Part of her job is to be a moral trainer to the tween sons of a wealthy family on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a quiet, fulfilling life enriched by what she

calls a coven of middle-aged female friends and her teen daughter. And one night at the ballet,

a Dora falls into conversation with Digby. Gets drawn into a world of black market art,

arms deals, secret meetings, and cross-border intrigue.

Go Gentle is the new novel for Maria Semple, bestselling author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette?

She joins us from our studios in New York.

Thanks so much for being with us.

Thank you for having me, Scott.

You have a door to make a point early on.

Stoicism isn't what a lot of us think it is, is it?

I think people think it's grin and bear it. But the idea of stoicism is to change your perspective. So you never have to grin and bear it.

So basically, you're looking at life through a lens where you're happy with whatever fate delivers you.

So whatever happens, you can roll with it very easily.

And what draws Adora to the real stoicism?

Adora has had a trauma in her past.

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