Stolen Moments

Can a lipstick left behind in a handbag change a woman’s life? Can a forgotten pair of shoes? Award-winning nonfiction writer Suzanne Antonetta Paola (New York Times Notable Book for Body Toxic; American Book Award winner) turns her knack for imagining how we as humans make sense of our lives to fiction. Inspired by V.S. Naipaul’s dismissal of women’s writing as “feminine tosh,” Paola challenged herself to imagine a story that would move from an item as simple as a lipstick to profound questions of how we exist—as beings in relationship to one another, and to ourselves: “she’d grown tired of herself, and been remade, from the mouth out.” By turns funny, moving, and illuminating, the three interlocked stories of Stolen Moments present women living at a psychological edge—a therapist in a stale marriage, a saleswoman, and a maid—each of whom has something unexpected come into her life, through accident or theft. The stories demonstrate how three very different people can have more in common than they know, and the way our smallest choices lead to the cascades of events that make us who we are.