While We Were Waiting

Katherine Nouri Hughes is an American writer of Iraqi-Irish descent. Kate was educated at Princeton (MA Near Eastern Studies), has lived in Cairo and traveled extensively in the region. She is the author of The Mapmaker's Daughter, a novel published by Delphinium Books. She’s had careers as a communications executive in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors and currently serves as a trustee of WNET/Thirteen (the PBS flagship station) and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Her two daughters are Caitlin Hughes and Johanna Hunsbedt - who is the mother of beloved Oliver and Audrey. Kate is the widow of Robert Del Tufo who was Attorney General and United States Attorney for New Jersey. She lives in Princeton and New York City.

“In this harrowing novel . . . Hughes, an American writer of Iraqi and Irish descent, has an acute ear for the half spoken, whether in a doctor’s clipped bulletins or a husband’s misfired word.”—The New Yorker"What a very confident and stirring novel this is. It passes my most difficult test: it involves me so thoroughly that I began to anticipate how it would end, given its preoccupations.  And gloriously, it surprised me and proved me—amazingly —to be underappreciating the author's immense discretion and resourcefulness.  It's a novel that thoroughly works and illuminates life." —Richard Ford“A vividly realized, dazzlingly intimate novel of intertwined lives and pasts, set in the most suspenseful of places—the intensive care maternity ward of a New York hospital. Katherine Hughes has written a breathtaking, heartrending, and finally uplifting novel—a mesmerizing reading experience.”—Joyce Carol Oates, author of Fox"Kate Hughes has brilliantly set her novel in the high-risk labor and delivery ward of a New York hospital. Her characters are survivors of trauma who have chosen to give birth to new life. The suspense built in by the complications of the pregnancies is matched by the stories that unfold while we are waiting. With its vibrant characters and pitch-perfect dialogue, the novel is hard to put down. In the end, we discover that the highest risk is to love in the aftermath of loss and violation."—Carol Gilligan, author of The Deepening Darkness"Hughes keeps the tension high. . . .Urgent . . . this novel reminds readers that even when life is at its worst, people can choose hope."—Kirkus Reviews