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Elin Hilderbrand (born July 17, 1969) is an American writer, mostly of romance novels. Her novels are typically set on and around Nantucket, where she resides. In 2019, New York magazine called her "the queen of beach reads".

Early life and education

Born and raised in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, Hildebrand spent her summers on Cape Cod, "playing touch football at low tide, collecting sea glass, digging pools for hermit crabs, swimming out to the wooden raft off shore", until her father died in a plane crash when she was 16. She spent the next summer working, doing piecework in a factory that made Halloween costumes; she promised herself that the goal for the rest of her life would be to always have a real summer.

Hildebrand later studied at Johns Hopkins University and was a teaching/writing fellow at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.

Career

Hilderbrand moved to Nantucket in 1993, working as a "classified ads girl" at a local paper, and later taking up writing.

Her first novels, starting in 2000, were published by St. Martin's Press. Since Barefoot in 2007, they have been published by Little, Brown and Company.

Her 2018 book The Perfect Couple, which was her first murder mystery, was adapted by Netflix and released as a miniseries with the same name in 2024, starring Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Eve Hewson and Dakota Fanning.

Ellen Pompeo has been working with ABC to adapt Hilderbrand's Paradise Trilogy into a TV series in which she would star after her departure as the lead actress in Grey's Anatomy.

Personal life

In 1995 Hilderbrand married Chip Cunningham at The Chanticleer in the Nantucket village of Siasconset. They have three children, and were divorced in 2015.

Hilderbrand had a double mastectomy in 2014.

Bibliography

Novels

• The Beach Club (2000; ISBN 978-0-312-38242-1)
• Nantucket Nights (2002; ISBN 978-0-312-98976-7)
• Summer People (2003; ISBN 978-0-312-99719-9
• The Blue Bistro (2005; ISBN 978-0-312-99262-0)
• The Love Season (2006; ISBN 0-312-36969-7)
• Barefoot (2007; ISBN 978-0-316-01859-3)
• A Summer Affair (2008; ISBN 978-0-316-01860-9)
• The Castaways (2009; ISBN 978-0-340-91980-4)
• The Island (2010; ISBN 978-0-316-04387-8)
• Silver Girl (2011; ISBN 978-0-316-09966-0)
• Summerland (2012; ISBN 978-0-316-09983-7)
• Beautiful Day (2013; ISBN 978-0-316-09976-9)
• The Matchmaker (2014; ISBN 978-0-316-09975-2)
• Winter Street (2014; ISBN 978-0-316-37611-2)
• The Rumor (2015; ISBN 978-0-316-33452-5)
• Winter Stroll (2015; ISBN 978-0-316-26113-5)
• Here's To Us (2016; ISBN 978-0-316-37514-6)
• Winter Storms (2016; ISBN 978-0-316-44948-9)
• The Identicals (2017; ISBN 978-1-473-61123-8)
• Winter Solstice (2017; ISBN 978-0-316-43545-1)
• The Perfect Couple (2018; ISBN 978-0-316-37526-9)
• Winter in Paradise (2018; ISBN 978-0-316-43551-2)
• Summer of '69 (2019; ISBN 978-0-316-42001-3)
• What Happens in Paradise (2020; ISBN 978-0-316-43557-4)
• 28 Summers (2020; ISBN 978-0-316-42004-4)
• Troubles in Paradise (2020; ISBN 978-0-316-43558-1)
• Golden Girl (2021; ISBN 978-0-316-42008-2)
• The Hotel Nantucket (2022; ISBN 978-0-316-25867-8)
• The Five-Star Weekend (2023; ISBN 978-0-316-25877-7)
• Swan Song (2024; ISBN 978-0-316-25887-6)

Short Stories

• The Surfing Lesson: An Original Short Story (2013; ISBN 978-0-316-24286-8)
• The Tailgate: An Original Short Story (2014; ISBN 978-0-316-37616-7)
• Summer of '79: A Summer of '69 Story (2020; ISBN 978-0-316-54180-0)
• The Sixth Wedding: A 28 Summers Story (2021; ISBN 978-0-316-30917-2)

References

1. Egan, Elisabeth (January 23, 2023). "Hilderbabes Take Nantucket". The New York Times. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
2. "for the ARTS record". The Nantucket Independent. June 13, 2007. Archived from the original on November 20, 2008. Retrieved November 24, 2008.
3. Hilderbrand, Elin (June 12, 2014). "The True Story This Fiction Writer Has to Tell Today". HuffPost. Retrieved February 26, 2023.
4. "How Elin Hilderbrand Became the 'Queen of Beach Reads'". The Cut. June 18, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
5. ^ Elin Hilderbrand (June 23, 2011). "What I Know for Sure about Sand in My Sheets". Oprah. Retrieved April 26, 2013.
6. ""The Love Season" - (back flap)". Retrieved November 24, 2008.
7. "A Summer Affair: A Novel". amazon.com. July 1, 2008. Retrieved November 24, 2008.
8. "How Hachette Grew Elin Hilderbrand". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved January 23, 2016.
9. Otterson, Joe (January 25, 2021). "Ellen Pompeo to Produce Series Adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand's 'Paradise' Novels at ABC". Variety. Retrieved June 7, 2022.
10. ^ "Nantucket Today: The Queen of the Beach Reads". nantuckettodayonline.com. Retrieved June 4, 2021.
11. "Meet the Author: Elin Hilderbrand | South Shore Moms". Retrieved June 4, 2021.
12. "Hilderbrand on double-mastectomy recovery". CBS News.
13. "Review of Winter in Paradise by Elin Hilderbrand". Publishers Weekly. September 24, 2018.
14. "Review of Summer of '69 by Elin Hilderbrand". Kirkus Reviews. 2019.

External links

• Elin Hilderbrand at IMDb

• Living people
• 20th-century American novelists
• 20th-century American women writers
• 21st-century American novelists
• 21st-century American women writers
• Iowa Writers' Workshop faculty
• Johns Hopkins University alumni
• Novelists from Iowa
• Novelists from Massachusetts
• Novelists from Pennsylvania
• People from Collegeville, Pennsylvania
• People from Nantucket, Massachusetts