Jenna Bush Hager’s latest Today show book club pick is Michelle Min Sterling’s Camp Zero.
Sterling’s debut novel, scheduled for publication next Tuesday by Atria, tells the story of a young woman hired to work as a spy at an American building project in Canada. A critic for Kirkus called the book “a love letter to what communities of women can accomplish when they work in concert.”
Hager made the announcement on the Today show, saying, “This book is incredible. You’ve never read a world like it before. It is set in the future, which I’m normally not into, but it is so grounded. It’s all about women saving the world….There’s multiple love stories.”
Sterling discussed her book with a reporter for the Today show website.
“I began with setting and a premise,” she said. “The biggest challenge of writing the book was definitely thinking about bringing those three plot strands together, and making them come together in a way that was satisfying, hopefully, for the reader.
“The book is about the challenges we face today, in terms of our relationships to the environment, income inequality, collective responsibility and individual desires,” she added.
Hager shared the news of her latest book club selection on Instagram, writing, “Camp Zero is a book about strong women who come together to change the world—something I fully believe in. I couldn’t put this novel down, and I promise you won’t be able to either.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
