Stockport-based Isobel Lepist, 55, spent decades building a successful international career while privately struggling with overwhelm, exhaustion and burnout. Her diagnosis at the age of 52 reframed her life and became the emotional catalyst for her debut novel, The Event.
The Event is a fast-paced thriller centred on a high-achieving woman who appears outwardly calm and capable while internally working relentlessly to stay afloat, offering rare representation of neurodivergent women who are often overlooked because they appear to be coping.
Since her diagnosis, Isobel has retrained as an ADHD coach and founded At The Millpond, supporting neurodivergent adults to better understand their brains and build lives that work for them, before turning to writing as another way to reach and represent women like herself.
The Event, is set in February 2023 and largely based in Uzbekistan. On the surface, it is a tense, fast-moving thriller. Beneath that, it is a deliberate act of representation for Isobel.
“At the centre of the book is a neurodivergent woman who looks like she’s got it all together. She’s successful, respected and relied upon, and yet internally she’s working incredibly hard just to stay afloat. That’s the reality for so many women, and it’s rarely shown honestly.”
That woman is Nisba, a high-achieving professional from Manchester who arrives in rural Uzbekistan under circumstances that are initially unclear. Jewish, ambitious and used to control, she is visibly competent and privately anxious, managing a mind that won’t switch off while navigating unfamiliar territory and escalating danger.
“So often, if a woman is achieving, people assume she’s fine. No one asks what it costs her. Neurodivergent women in particular get very good at masking, because that’s how you survive.”
Nisba’s story unfolds alongside Igor, a 36-year-old Ukrainian war veteran living alone and reluctantly running his late father’s winery. As unsettling incidents fracture his fragile sense of safety, the pair are forced into an uneasy alliance.
“The book is about trust. Who we trust, why we trust them, and what happens when the strategies you’ve relied on no longer work.”
For Isobel, writing Nisba was personal but intentional.
“I didn’t want to write her as broken, or quirky, or inspirational. I wanted her to be whole. Strength and struggle can exist in the same person.”
Looking back, Isobel can trace her neurodivergence to childhood. She could draw exceptionally by six and wrote a book at nine, yet struggled to follow basic classroom instructions unless a classmate explained them.
“I spent years not learning anything because I couldn’t interpret what the teacher meant. When I showed frustration once, I was told children who behave like that end up in prison. After that, any meltdown happened behind closed doors.”
Isobel’s father died suddenly when she was nine. With little emotional support and no framework for processing grief, she masked harder.
“I acted as if nothing had happened. I genuinely thought my inability to cope was just me being ‘weird’.”
In adulthood, the pattern continued. Isobel went on to build a 25-year career in global energy and logistics, working across the UK, Berlin and The Hague, collaborating with more than 90 nationalities and earning awards for innovation.
“In the workplace, I felt like an alien masquerading. Imagine walking into a global boardroom but internally feeling about 12-years-old. I mirrored people so well that no one saw how much I was burning out.”
Isobel became expert at hyper-performance, working long hours and pushing through exhaustion.
“I didn’t have prioritisation skills, so I just did everything fast and worked harder. I began each day depleted and still aimed to outperform.”
Isobel believes fiction can reach people in ways awareness campaigns often cannot.
“A thriller lets you show what it really feels like. You can put the reader inside someone’s decision-making, their fear, their intensity. You don’t have to explain neurodiversity, you let people experience it.”
The Event is available now on Amazon and at www.IGLepistAuthor.com, and further information about Isobel’s ADHD coaching can be found at www.AtTheMillpond.co.uk
