THE WILL is part psychological thriller, and part meditation on motherhood, the rabbit holes of magical thinking, and the terrifying power of desire. This deeply unnerving, yet psychologically relatable story by New York Times bestselling author and poet Maggie Smith will appeal to fans of Helen Phillips’ The Need, Ashley Audrain’s The Push, and Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch.

THE WILL
by Maggie Smith
Knopf, 2027
(via the David Black Agency)

When Caroline’s sister and brother-in-law are killed in a car accident, the couple’s will names Caroline as the guardian of their two young children. After years of miscarriages and failed fertility treatments, Caroline had said she’d do anything to be a mother. Anything. Grieving her only sibling and struggling to parent two heartbroken children, Caroline begins to unravel, convinced she willed the accident in some Faustian bargain. But that’s impossible—isn’t it?

Maggie Smith is the award-winning New York Times bestselling author of nine books of poetry and prose, including You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Good Bones, Goldenrod, Keep Moving, and My Thoughts Have Wings. A 2011 recipient of a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Smith has also received a Pushcart Prize, and numerous grants and awards from the Academy of American Poets, the Sustainable Arts Foundation, the Ohio Arts Council, the Greater Columbus Arts Council, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has been widely published, appearing in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Nation, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Best American Poetry, and more. She is the host of The Slowdown podcast, and she writes about craft in her bestselling Substack newsletter, For Dear Life. You can find her on social media @MaggieSmithPoet.