Join Libreria, as we welcome Emma Gannon to discuss their new book, Table for One – a book about modern love, for modern women.

Emma’s new novel is a conversation-starting story about leading your own life – not following. It asks a question we all think, and don’t voice enough: why do we set so much
store in relationships? Does true happiness lie inside a relationship, or outside of one?

Willow is having quite the year. One moment she’s climbing the ladder of life achievements – the boyfriend, the grown-up house, the steady career – the next it’s 4pm and she’s swaddled in her duvet, wondering what went wrong. Blinking into the light of a day that looks completely unfamiliar, and alienated from her friends who are busy ‘moving forwards’, Willow has never felt more alone. But she’s in good company. Because when inspiration arrives from an unlikely place – ‘the poster girl for single life’, influencer Naz Chopra – Willow can start to rekindle a relationship she’s long neglected: the one with herself.

‘In Gannon’s capable hands, women are not so much divided along their disparate lines – but united’ – Pandora Sykes

About our guests:

Emma Gannon is the award-winning, Sunday Times bestselling author of eight books, including her latest non-fiction, A Year of Nothing, and Olive, her debut novel, which was nominated for the Dublin Literary Award. Emma also runs the popular Substack newsletter, The Hyphen, hosts creativity retreats all over the world, and she is a judge for the 2025 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction.

Francesca Specter is the London-based author of the non-fiction title Alonement: How to be Alone & Absolutely Own It, a Times book of the year, and host of the Alonement podcast. A lifestyle journalist for over a decade, she’s written for every major UK broadsheet including The Guardian, The Independent and the Financial Times, together with The New York Times. She has been writing her bestselling Substack newsletter, The Shoulds, since 2022.