Along with escaping dinner duty and shattering various ceilings, the Modern Woman has been instructed that it is possible — indeed, expected — to have it all: babies, a ladder-climbing career, and a stress-free relationship with a spouse.

Good luck, says Allison Pearson, 42, a columnist for the London Evening Standard and a panelist on BBC2’s Newsnight Review, who recently inked a novel dispelling the modern mommy myth: you can do it all and still remain coifed and composed. Pearson’s I Don’t Know How She Does It: The Life of Kate Reddy, Working Mother (Knopf) chronicles the gruelingly paced day of a financial whiz who works triple time raising two kids and traversing various continents for her company.

Caught in between a breakfast with other moms and a photo shoot with USA Today, Pearson, who has two wee ones of her own with hubby New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane, dished on how much she plucked from real-life experience, and what was on her mental to-do list of the moment.

Q: What was your own schedule while writing this book?

A: I’m struggling for words to describe it that aren’t " hellish. " Probably looking back it was not a wise idea to write a novel while holding down two jobs and bringing up two kids. I ended up living Kate’s life while trying to write it.

Q: The book has frequently been compared to Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary. Do you find that accurate?

A: I always say if you ask poor Bridget to live one week in poor Kate’s life, she’d be admitted to the emergency room and have to go on the respirator. I really liked Bridget Jones. I found her to be an endearing and comic creature. I see Kate being a real woman with a real woman’s tough choices and with a difficult life to manage. I hope that I Don’t Know How She Does It plays many more notes on the keyboard — many more dark as well as light.

Q: I have to admit, reading this book made me not want to have kids.

A: [Laughs] Yeah, my husband, Anthony Lane, calls the book " the greatest literary contraceptive ever written. "

Q: I know that you’re working on the screenplay for Miramax, but are you working on a sequel as well?

A: It kind of cleaned me out. I poured everything I know and feel into it. I felt exhausted after finishing the book. Even signing a check was a struggle. But who knows? Maybe it will be like having kids. In two years’ time, you’ll forget all the pain and think, " Hey, let’s go make another one! "

Allison Pearson will read from I Don’t Know How She Does It on Tuesday, October 15, at 7 p.m. at WordsWorth Bookstore, 30 Brattle Street, Cambridge. Call (617) 354-5201.