After two decades of taking her readers on vacation to Nantucket, Elin Hilderbrand is ready for her own getaway. The author of bestselling novels including “Barefoot” tells TODAY.com that her 30th book, "Swan Song," out June 11, will be her last Nantucket-based novel.
She previously wrote on her website that she would retire after her 2024 book and “plans on becoming a book influencer.” She first announced her plans in a 2021 interview with the . “A lot of people will follow a writer for a long time and then inevitably they will turn out a book that is not as good as the others.
I’ve always said to myself, ‘I will not do that. I will make each book better and better or different in some way.’ I feel myself coming to my natural end of my material," she said.
Hilderbrand, 54, published her first book, “Beach Club” in 2000 and since then, has come out with a new book every year — sometimes, even two. Below, she opens up to TODAY.com about what retirement really looks like, and whether it involves writing.
Hilderbrand isn't retiring from writing altogether — but she says she stepping back from Nantucket-centric books. “I have achieved a certain standard. And so to keep up with that standard is really the challenge.
The reason I’m retiring is because I know it’s not sustainable. And this is going to be it. There’s enormous satisfaction in saying, ‘OK, “Swan Song” is my last Nantucket-based novel,’” Hilderbrand says.
Many of her novels brin.
