Award-winning producer Bruna Papandrea‘s Made Up Stories production company has optioned New York Times bestselling author Allison Pearson’s new novel How Hard Can It Be? for an upcoming television project. The book, a sequel to Pearson’s massively popular I Don’t Know How She Does It, is set to be published on June 5, 2018, by St. Martin’s Press.
A brilliant and incredibly timely portrait of a heroine fighting to remain strong and relevant in an ageist world, How Hard Can It Be? picks up the story of Kate Reddy as she approaches her 50th birthday. Kate is now a Sandwich Woman dealing with all the challenges of midlife: teenagers sharing pictures of their intimate parts on social media, aging parents taking a second pass at childhood, a marriage gone flat, not to mention menopause and memory loss.
Pearson is a columnist for The Daily Telegraph (UK) and has won many awards for her journalism, as well as being named Newcomer of the Year at the British Book Awards for her first novel, I Don’t Know How She Does It. Her hilarious and heartbreaking tale of a woman trying to juggle family and career has sold 4 million copies worldwide in over 34 translations and was also adapted into a major motion picture in 2011.
Pearson spoke on the How Hard Can It Be? television adaptation, saying: “I am delighted that Bruna and her amazing team at Made Up Stories are transforming ‘How Hard Can It Be?’ into a compelling TV drama. Committed to telling important tales about women’s lives at this great turning point in our history, Made Up Stories is the perfect producer for my novel. We have such a wealth of great actresses in their prime right now; I can’t wait to see them bring my heroine and her friends to life.”
“I knew Allison’s brilliant brilliant novel was exactly what I had been looking for the moment I started reading it. She captures the struggles and joys of balancing it all with such hilarity and emotional honesty, in a way that will be relatable to so many people,” added Papandrea.
Papandrea, who is currently in production on the second season of Big Little Lies for HBO, will serve as an executive producer for the series with Casey Haver, Jeanne Snow, and Steve Hutensky rounding out the producing team for Made Up Stories.
