Nicola Harrison: Shared Vulnerability Creates Connection
In this interview, author Nicola Harrison discusses how multiple POVs added complexity to her new historical novel, The Island Club.
Nicola Harrison is the author of Montauk, The Show Girl, and Hotel Laguna Born and raised in England, she moved with her family to Southern California when she was 14. She is a graduate of UCLA and received her MFA in Creative Writing from Stony Brook University. Prior to writing novels she worked as a fashion journalist in New York City, where she lived for 17 years. Now she resides in Manhattan Beach, California, with her husband, two sons, and a high maintenance chihuahua named Lily. Follow her on TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram.
In this interview, Nicola discusses how multiple POVs added complexity to her new historical novel, The Island Club, her advice for other writers, and more.
Name: Nicola Harrison
Literary agent: Stephanie Kip Rostan
Book title: The Island Club
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Release date: April 28, 2026
Genre/category: Historical Fiction
Previous titles: Montauk, The Show Girl, Hotel Laguna
Elevator pitch: On 1956 Balboa Island, three women—a hassled young mother, a society matriarch, and a disgraced former tennis champion—forge an unlikely friendship just as the lies holding their lives together begin to unravel.
What prompted you to write this book?
The idea for The Island Club grew after a small but surprisingly transformative moment in my own life. Around age 40, I found myself reluctantly roped onto a tennis lesson with a group of women I barely knew, despite having no background in sports. What I quickly discovered wasn’t just a love for the game, but the dynamic that formed when a group of adults allowed themselves to be total beginners together.
That (very humbling) experience made me curious about how shared vulnerability creates connection and how that might work as a narrative engine. I wanted to explore what happens when three very different women, whose lives are falling apart in very different ways, are forced together in a small and closely knit community. I wanted to examine the power of female friendship in this novel, not just as a backdrop, but as the driving force of this story, shaping conflict, growth and ultimately transformation.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
It took almost four years from initial idea to publication, and the writing itself wasn’t linear. I had several stops and starts along the way as the story eventually revealed itself to me. Initially I imagined the novel centering on Adele, the disgraced tennis pro living on the island. She was loosely inspired by Suzanne Lenglan, the early-20th-century French sensation who transformed women’s tennis—not just how women played, but how they moved, dressed, and what they were allowed to achieve. But as I worked through early drafts, I realized I didn’t want this to be a tennis novel. What truly interested me was the relationship between the three women, Milly, Sylvia, and Adele. Once those characters came fully into focus, the story shifted. That’s when the book really took off.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
Yes! Understanding how much timing shapes a book’s life is always such an eye opener. My editor felt strongly that this novel should launch in the spring—it’s set during spring break on Balboa Island in the 1950s, and she envisioned it as a historical beach read. I loved that instinct, but it meant I had to adjust my expectations.
Because I delivered the manuscript at the end of the summer of 2024, aligning the book with the right season required a longer runway than usual. The wait from submission to publication stretched to about 18 months, which felt interminable at the time. But seeing the book arrive in stores exactly when it’s meant to be read reminded me that publishing is almost as much about patience and trust as it is about writing. I’m grateful we waited and even more so now that the book is finally in the hands of readers.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
One of the biggest surprises in the writing process was discovering how much I enjoyed working with multiple points of view. My previous novels were written from a single first-person perspective, so writing The Island Club through three alternating narrators in alternating chapters was a significant shift for me. What began as a technical challenge quickly became essential to the story.
Stepping out of one character’s interior world and into another revealed how interconnected their lives were and how the same moment would be understood very differently depending on who was experiencing it. That layering added a depth and complexity the story wouldn’t have had from a single point of view, and it ultimately changed the way I think about structure and character on the page.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
I hope readers will come away feeling both absorbed and understood. I try to write women’s lives with as much honest emotion as possible, and my greatest hope is that someone recognizes a piece of themselves on the page and feels a little less alone.
I want readers to be swept away to another time and place and to become invested in the complicated inner lives of my characters and the choices they make. I hope it will also serve as a reminder of the importance of maintaining connection. As we get older and busier with kids and work, friendships can start to slip away unless we nurture them. This book is, in part, a nudge to value those bonds and to remember how much stronger, and more resilient, we can be when we don’t try to muscle through and do it all on our own.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
My best advice is to find or form a writing group that meets regularly and shares work. Being part of a weekly writing workshop has been invaluable for me over the years. It creates accountability, provides built-in deadlines and offers thoughtful feedback while a project is in the works. Writing is a pretty solitary endeavor but I find this is a really good way to keep going and feel supported through the difficult parts and when you’re feeling stuck. And honestly, I think a writing group is what helps people go from starting a book to actually finishing it.
