Sarah Harman, ALL THE OTHER MOTHERS HATE ME

Totally Booked with Zibby

Zibby Owens

Connection, Inspiration, Moms, Entertainment, Arts, Reading, Books, Parenting, Literary

4.4 • 602 Ratings

🗓️ 31 March 2025

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Journalist turned novelist Sarah Harman joins Zibby to discuss her biting, twisty, utterly delightful thriller, ALL THE OTHER MOTHERS HATE ME, which follows a washed-up girl band star turned reluctant mom detective at the center of a missing child investigation. Sarah talks about her unconventional writing process, the challenges of creating an unlikable yet relatable protagonist, and balancing creative ambition and motherhood. She also talks about the pressures of “Plan B” careers, her experience adapting her book for FX, and the eternal question of what it really means to be a “good mom.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Zibi Owens, and you're listening to Totally Booked with Zibby. Formerly, moms don't have time to read books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest, best-selling, buzziest, or underrated authors and story creators, whose work I think is worth your time. As a bookstore owner, publisher, author, and obviously podcaster, I get a comprehensive
0:24.0	look at everything that's coming out and spend my time curating the best books so you don't
0:29.3	have to.
0:30.3	Stay in the know, get insider insights, and connect with guests like I do every single day.
0:36.2	For more information, go to zibbimedia.com and follow me on Instagram
0:40.2	at Zibby Owens. Sarah Harmon is the author of All the Other Mothers Hate Me. Sarah is a recovering
0:49.3	journalist living in London. As a broadcaster, she has over a decade of experience reporting on major breaking news
0:55.6	stories around the globe, most recently as a foreign correspondent for NBC News, reporting for
1:00.6	today, Nightly News, and MSNBC. Her debut novel, All the Other Mothers Hate Me, won the Lucy
1:06.5	Cavendish Prize for Fiction in 2023. Welcome, Sarah. Thanks so much for coming on totally booked
1:12.3	with Zibby to talk about all the other mothers hate me. Congratulations. Oh, thank you for having
1:17.9	me. The title is so perfect. And one of the chapters in the scene, you explain why all of the other
1:24.5	mothers hate her. Why don't you jump in and explain both the reason for
1:30.1	your title and what your whole book is really about? Okay, well, I want to start, Zibi, by
1:34.3	clarifying that this is not a memoir and the other mothers, as far as well, don't actually
1:40.3	hate me, Sarah Harmon. This is the story of a washed-up girl band singer in her early
1:46.7	30s who suddenly has to become a detective when her beloved 10-year-old son becomes a suspect
1:54.6	in his classmates' mysterious disappearance. And I was really intrigued by the idea of an unlikable main character. And I think
2:04.0	the heroine of this story, Florence Grimes, really fits the bill. You know, she's not your
2:09.2	typical PTA mom. She's not even maybe necessarily a good mom. And I think one of the things I
2:15.5	wanted to grapple with in the story was like, can you be a bad person and still be a good mom. And I think one of the things I wanted to grapple with in the story was like,
2:22.9	can you be a bad person and still be a good mom? I think the jury's still out.
	...

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