Laura Dickerman in conversation with Stephanie Peral

In Hot Desk, debut novelist Laura Dickerman introduces Rebecca Blume and Ben Heath, two rival editors forced to share a workspace on alternating days at a post-pandemic publishing house. Having never met in person, they conduct their rivalry entirely through Post-it notes left on the pot of a shared cactus. When celebrated literary giant Edward David Adams, known as the Lion, dies and leaves his estate up for grabs, their banter turns into an all-out competition for a career-defining prize.

As the stakes rise, Rebecca uncovers a connection between her mother Jane and the Lion that pulls the story back four decades to 1982 Manhattan, where Jane arrives in the city and meets Rose, soon her closest friend. Two ambitious young women navigating a publishing world alive with art and ideas, their friendship is tested by a single fateful day during an April blizzard that will alter the course of both their lives.

Hot Desk is a novel about ambition, legacy, and what we owe to the people who shaped us, told with warmth, humor, and a genuine love for the world of books and the people who make them. Dickerman draws on her own experience as a longtime educator and her early days as an intern at The Paris Review to bring an insider’s eye to a world rarely depicted with this much affection and wit.

The author will be joined in conversation by Stephanie Peral, Assistant Director of Programming and Events at Books and Books.