The Half Life: A conversation with Rachel Beanland

Book People favorite Rachel Beanland returns with her most captivating novel yet The Half Life. Rachel will be in conversation with Rachel McRady, author of Sunseekers. From the author of Florence Adler Swims Forever and The House Is on Fire, a novel set on a remote Italian island about a navy wife’s reckoning with power, love, and the price of staying silent in the Atomic Age. Rachel Beanland is the author of The House Is on Fire and Florence Adler Swims Forever, which won the National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction. She is a graduate of the University of South Carolina and earned her MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University. She lives with her family in Richmond, Virginia. Rachel McRady is an Emmy-award winning journalist whose work has appeared in People magazine, Entertainment Tonight, Rachel McRady Time magazine, The Washington Post, E! News, Us Weekly, and more. Her debut novel, Sun Seekers, was featured on Good Morning America, Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper, and won the Zibby Award for Best Family Drama of 2024. Her next novel, Let’s Do This Again Soon, will be released in May 2027. Rachel lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband, Caleb, and daughters, Iona and Isla.