This Was Not the Plan

This Was Not the Plan starts out as a funny and sharply observed campus novel and then deepens into a thought-provoking examination of the complicated and always thorny politics of abortion. Daphne Uviller is a shrewd and compassionate writer, able to imagine a wide variety of intersecting lives and outlooks, and find humor in even the darkest moments.” — Tom Perrotta, author of Election and Tracy Flick Can’t Win



When theater director Sylvia Tanisman wins her first Tony award, her husband takes the occasion to announce he’s divorcing her. Sylvia flees the shambles of her marriage by accepting a visiting professorship at Linden, an elite college in Pierre, New York. A few counties north, high school senior Meg Croyden has narrowly survived a self-destructive, rebellious youth and is headed to Linden on a full scholarship. In the town of Pierre, lifelong resident and devout Catholic Caroline Byrne McClanahan struggles with the secret shame of a family that is falling apart. When circumstances bring them all to the local abortion clinic in Pierre, the fates of these three women hailing from starkly different worlds are forever entwined.


This Was Not the Plan tackles one of the most important issues of our time with humor, compassion, and authenticity. The collision of the lives of Sylvia, Meg, and Caroline reminds us of the dangers of thinking in black and white and the possibility of finding humanity in each other, even where you least expect it.

About the Author

Daphne Uviller is the author of the Zephyr Zuckerman series Super in the City, Hotel No Tell, and Wife of the Day, which were optioned for television by Silver Lake Entertainment, and she is the co-editor, with Deborah Siegel, of the anthology Only Child: Writers on the Singular Joys and Solitary Sorrows of Growing Up Solo. She has one husband, one dog, and two teenagers, and she lives near the glorious Hudson River.