Celebrated author Lily King struggles to describe life in America against the current political backdrop. “What this administration is doing is atrocious on so many levels,” she says. Discussing Ice Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) activity, King expresses her horror regarding “abductions” which are happening all over the country. Only this week, an Ice agent fatally shot Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo during a road stop in Houston. This is the tenth fatal shooting by federal immigration officials during Trump’s second term. Speaking on the latest episode of The Irish Times Women’s Podcast, the author is determined to remain hopeful about the future of her country. “I get dispirited, but I am an optimist and I also think the tide is turning,” she explains. King had initially channelled this anger with the Trump administration into a political murder mystery she was writing. However, she describes not being fully engaged with the story and how a chance task from fellow writer Ann Patchett inspired her to change course. When reading an early copy of Patchett’s novel Tom Lake, she could feel the fun that the author had creating it and she wanted to experience the same doing her work. “I just started writing this college scene with these three people, and I never ever looked back at that murder mystery again,” she tells podcast presenter Róisín Ingle. That college scene was the beginning of The New York Times bestseller Heart the Lover. The novel’s split-time narrative tells the story of a campus love-triangle before leaping forward to follow the same characters as they navigate middle-age and their complex relationships with one another. The story centres on a strong female protagonist finding her feet as a young woman. “I wanted her to have a combination of an intellectual and emotional and a sexual awakening,” the writer explains. For King, writing about women is more important than ever because “progress can be taken away so quickly ... it’s so important to keep our voices out there and our experiences known,” she highlights. You can listen back to their conversation in the player above or search The Women’s Podcast wherever you get your podcasts.