Maureen Corrigan

except, of course, everyone standing beside her, who all understood it perfectly well.

I've shared the premise of Laurie Frankel's forthcoming novel, Enormous Wings, with a few friends.

Based on how instantly they entered the book's title into their cell phones, the premise is all you need to know about this wild but all too timely story about female autonomy or lack thereof.

So here goes.

Frankel's heroine, Pepper Mills, is 77 and a reluctant new resident of the Vista View retirement community in Austin, Texas.

Surprisingly, she meets a nice man there and has sex.

And then, through a medical fluke that Frankel almost makes plausible—

Pepper finds herself pregnant.

Her doctors expect the pregnancy to end in miscarriage.

When it doesn't, Pepper seeks an abortion.

But she lives in Texas, and she's now such a media sensation that it's almost impossible for her to leave the state.

complicated, gutsy, and entertaining.

Enormous Wings pokes fun at life's unpredictability and stokes anger at situations that aren't at all funny.

Agatha Smithson is that rare person who lacks the gene for self-doubt.

Brash and brutally dismissive of anyone who disagrees with her, Agatha is the main character and unreliable narrator of Nancy Foley's deviously plotted debut novel called I Am Agatha.

If you're one of those readers who prizes likability above all else in your fictional characters, you may be inclined to give I Am Agatha a pass.

But that would be a mistake.

This is a strange, fresh story about artistic ambition and personal autonomy willingly abridged for love.

And all too unusually, the love affair here is between two women in their 60s.

Agatha's character is inspired by the real-life minimalist painter Agnes Martin, known for her canvases covered in graphs and stripes.