Jenna's Story: A New Author Steps Forth

Ana's mother had died of AIDS when Ana was 3 years old. Ana had only one memory of her: in a bathroom, sobbing. Later, her father died of AIDS as well.

When she was 10, she learned she'd been born with HIV herself. Her grandmother insisted she keep it a secret. There would be other secrets too: Ana and her younger sister were sexually abused by a man their grandmother was living with.

One of Bush's strongest memories from the interviews was when Ana talked about making up a game called "orphan." In it, she would imagine that she and her sister lived in a house by themselves. There was a river and an apple orchard. Life was peaceful and safe.

At Laura Bush's suggestion, Bush and Baxter retained Washington attorney Robert Barnett ("the god of all book deals," Jenna Bush calls him). Bush wrote a proposal and five sample chapters, and when the two women came home for Christmas, Barnett helped negotiate a contract with HarperCollins. Her share of the profits, Bush says, will go to UNICEF. No money will come to her, but some will go to an educational fund that will allow Ana to continue her education.

The deadline was tight. Bush wanted the book out at the beginning of the school year, and she drove herself to make that happen.

"I've done this 34 years," says HarperCollins senior executive editor Toni Markiet, and "she's among the five hardest-working writers I've ever worked with." Bush wrote "every single word," Markiet adds, though she got the kind of guidance Markiet gives any writer.

Well, maybe not every word. Bush's mother was also seeing drafts and editing for grammar and usage.

"Former librarian and schoolteacher," Laura Bush says. "I couldn't help it."

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To anyone accustomed to the scripted utterances of official Washington, the torrent of words pouring forth from Jenna Bush can't help but feel different. Answering questions about "Ana's Story" or books in general, she talks as if she could go on forever.

Ask her about authors she loves and she tosses out a dozen names -- among them Nicole Krauss, Isabel Allende, Milan Kundera, Ann Patchett and Charles Baxter -- before turning the question around ("What's your favorite book?").

Ask about more private or politically charged topics, however, and you can see her natural impulse toward openness at war with a nascent caution.