Book Launch – The First Lady Next Door, A memoir of Iceland, identity, and unexpected adventure

Join us for a book launch event celebrating Eliza Reid’s new book, The First Lady Next Door, a memoir of her time as the First Lady of Iceland. Joining Eliza will be bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld.

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In early 2016, Eliza Reid’s biggest daily goals were modest but meaningful: showering without one of her four kids bursting into the bathroom, juggling clients without dropping a deadline, and growing the writers’ retreat she was building from scratch. What wasn’t onher bingo card? That her husband—a bookish, cardigan-wearing history professor—would run for president of Iceland…and, seven weeks later, actually win.

Suddenly, Canadian-born Eliza was catapulted into a new life as first lady of her adopted country with the eyes of a nation watching her every move—as someone’s wife. Absent an instruction manual (she googled how to curtsy before meeting the queen of Denmark), she decided to do what she’d always done: figure it out on her own terms.

Part fish out of water story and part fairy tale, The First Lady Next Door takes readers from rural Ontario to Timbuktu, and from the White House to Buckingham Palace. Eliza shows how embracing authenticity in all its messiness can become your greatest strength, even when the world expects polished perfection. After all, our everyday moments are what create the road map for making the unexpected count.

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About Eliza Reid

Eliza Reid is a bestselling writer, public speaker, gender equality advocate, cofounder of the acclaimed Iceland Writers Retreat and former first lady of Iceland. She was born and raised in Canada but has lived in Iceland for over twenty years. Eliza’s first book, Secrets of the Sprakkar: Iceland’s Extraordinary Women and How They Are Changing the World, was an instant bestseller in Canada and Iceland, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Pick, and translated into numerous languages. Her first novel, an Iceland-set mystery called Death on the Island (Death of a Diplomat in the UK) was an instant USA Today bestseller, an instant bestseller in Canada and Iceland, and has been optioned for television in a pre-empt deal. Her memoir The First Lady Next Door: A Memoir of Iceland, Identity, and Unexpected Adventure will be published in spring 2026.

About Curtis Sittenfeld

Curtis Sittenfeld is the bestselling author of seven novels: Prep, The Man of My Dreams, American Wife, Sisterland, Eligible, Rodham, and Romantic Comedy, which was picked for Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club. Her first story collection, You Think It, I’ll Say It, was published in 2018 and also picked for Reese Witherspoon’s Book Club. Show Don’t Tell is her second story collection. Her books have been selected by The New York Times, Time, Entertainment Weekly, and People for their “Ten Best Books of the Year” lists, optioned for television and film, and translated into thirty languages. Her short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and Esquire, and in the Best American Short Stories anthology, of which she was the 2020 guest editor.