Margaret Hutton is the author of the new novel If You Leave. She is a former environmental reporter, and she lives in the Washington, D.C., area, and in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
Q: What inspired you to write If You Leave, and how did you create your characters Audrey, Lucille, and Lake?
A: I got very curious about Washington, D.C., during World War II when I realized how many women moved here to support the effort. Several apartment complexes, still around, were built specifically to house female workers, and this astonished me.
I would have liked to have been one of those women, leaving some rural town far across the country to move here and experience more autonomy, a good job, new friends… maybe a romance with one of the men coming or going.
I also created the characters from this same curiosity—what might draw a woman here, and how might she handle being on the cusp of independence only to have it yanked away when the war was over.
Q: The writer Alexandra Zapruder said of the novel, “If Margaret Hutton's prose were a painting, it would be a Vermeer.” What do you think of that assessment?
A: I wept when I read that! What an honor to be compared, as a writer, to Vermeer. I love making sentences, and so I hope these, as well as how light is evoked throughout the story, and the attention to everyday, private details, resonate with readers.
Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?
A: When I started writing the novel, I didn’t have a story, only this curiosity I’ve mentioned. It was very much how E. L. Doctorow describes the process: “[L]ike driving a car at night: you never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.”
I’m very interested in forgiveness, what it looks like over a long period of time. Once I had the engine of the story, I found myself writing into that process, wanting to know what shape reconciliation might take between each of these characters—if it was even possible.
Q: How was the book’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: The title changed a number of times, and I landed on this one after the novel was accepted for publication. It’s driven by two principles: I wanted it to invite the reader into the story rather than present a puzzle to be solved, and I wanted it to roll off the tongue.
There are an awful lot of “leavings” in this story. As Mary Kay Zuravleff wrote, each “character wants the freedom to leave, but no one wants to be abandoned.” And one reviewer recently pointed out that D.C. has long been a city characterized by leaving, an insight I appreciate. I’ve certainly felt that living here.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m excited to have a novel-in-stories underway—I’m deeply interested in the interconnectedness of this world, so I love the form.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I’m planning many more discussions about If You Leave across the Southeast in early 2026, and I’d love to talk to book clubs if they’re nearby. Virtual visits also work!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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