Hey, it's Empire's Book at the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. I'm not sure if it's universal,

but I think a lot of folks feel a certain sense of unfulfillment. Even if they're objectively

on paper successful, there's always that lingering shadow of, oh, I thought I'd be more than this.

Today's author at Meg Howry succinctly breaks down that feeling

in the main character of her new book, They're Going to Love You. Her name is Carlisle, and she's a

43-year-old choreographer who, according to Howry, is constantly moving the goalposts of what

success looks like for her. But her feelings about her own life and career are complicated and

intertwined with her feelings about her father and his partner, both of whom she's been estranged from for nearly two decades.

And Pair Scott Simon talked to Harry about forgiveness and how not forgiving someone is in its own way a form of power.

Make Howie's new novel, they're going to Love You, takes us into a family where ballet is lifeblood,

livelihood, dreams, and nightmares. Carlisle grows up in the ballet, the daughter of the sugar

plum fairy, and another one-time dancer. Her parents parents divorce, and her mother brings her to Ohio

where she grows up, but Carlisle only feels truly alive, alert, and dazzled during the short

trip she spends with her father, Robert, and his partner James in New York. When the story

first opens to us, it is decades later, and they are all estranged.

And Carlisle gets word that her father is about to die.

Meg Howry, who performed with the Joffrey and City Ballet of Los Angeles, and has appeared on Broadway,

as well as writing previous novels, including The Wanderers, joins us from Los Angeles.

Thanks so much for being with us.

Thank you for having me.

What does Carlisle find growing up in the Bank Street apartment

in Greenwich Village of Robert and James?

...