I Was Anastasia

by Ariel Lawhon

But his mistake in Wasserburg was the beginning of everything going wrong. Had it not been for the Private Investigator, she would have proved her case before the courts long ago and she wouldn’t have spent decades living in a ramshackle cottage waiting for the verdict of her appeal. She would have a title and an estate and the dispersed fortune of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

The greatest challenge I had with I WAS ANASTASIA is that I began the novel at the end. And if you have read the book, you know that the two points of view—Anna and Anastasia—alternate back and forth. One told chronologically, and one told in reverse. Each taking turns, moving closer toward one another until they collide at a key moment in which all is revealed. It was easily the biggest challenge of my career. And the most rewarding. Sometimes I had fun, but mostly I felt as if my brain was on fire. And all of it began in this scene. I had to set everything up right here. I had to make you think you knew what was happening and then I had to unravel every one of your assumptions so that you would doubt everything you thought you knew. High stakes for one scene. It helped tremendously that lunch, on that particular day, was eaten at my desk and consisted of my favorite grilled cheese sandwich: sharp cheddar, Hatch green chilies, and ripe beefsteak tomato.