BIG LOVE

E. Jean Carroll and Mary Trump Are Publishing a Romance Novel on Substack

They don’t seem to know if it’s fair to call it “erotic.”

Mary Trump is collaborating on a romance novel with E. Jean Carroll that is set to be published in installments on Substack. The former president’s niece and Carroll—who successfully sued Donald Trump in a sexual abuse and defamation case—will publish the first segment of The Italian Lesson on Friday. The novel, which was also worked on by law professor Jennifer Taub, follows an American woman who moves to Tuscany and falls in love with the proprietor of a local vineyard. Trump, Carroll, and Taub became close friends during the pandemic when they joined a Zoom knitting group and decided to keep in touch by working on a romance story, which was initially planned as a screenplay. When asked if it was fair to call the work “erotic,” Trump told the New York Times: “This is not soft-core pornography.” “Let’s wait,” Carroll replied. The writers say there’ll be no mention at all of Donald Trump in the story or of politics more generally. “We’re giving you an escape,” Carroll said.