Book Group Antics!

I had a wonderfully lively evening with a book group that has just finished reading The Boy Next Door. Over wine and a fabulous dinner seven feisty ladies (two Americans, three Australians, a Swiss, a Swede) and I delved into Ian, Lindiwe and their unpredictable story in Zimbabwe. It was fascinating to me how the book touched all of them; to hear their own takes on the characters and how passionately they felt about them.

There seemed to be a strong emotional connection to Lindiwe in particular (everybody loved her!) which, as the author, I was deeply moved by. A couple of them really disliked Ian at the beginning of the book; he grew on them because of his own growth: they had to struggle against their own prejudices and conceptions about him (which seems to me to be a very real-life like thing to have to do). It felt, hearing the various opinions, that the story had achieved something substantial and remarkable; that knowledge took my breath away.

They were all curious to know if there were any autobiographical aspects and were rather shocked to hear that Ian is entirely a creature of the imagination! He is the biggest 'what if?' puzzle of the book. I talked about the process of writing the novel: the bits and pieces I borrowed from my childhood; how this borrowing metamorphosed into something else entirely which I guess must be one of the great joys and gifts of fiction writing...the way you can play, and make believe!


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