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Chris Bohjalian:
Your books are all so wonderfully diverse. How do you come up with all of these ideas?
Chris Bohjalian
Thank you for writing and for your kind words.
I hope my books are always different. That is a goal: to never write the same book twice.
That point noted, I think they fall into two categories: contemporary literature such as "The Guest Room" or "Midwives," and historical fiction such as "The Sandcastle Girls" and "The Light in the Ruins."
But they all share, I hope, a sense of dread that keeps us turning the pages and empathy that makes us feel for the characters. (E.M. Forster said, "we all know that fiction is truer than history because it goes beyond the evidence." I think about that a lot when I'm writing.)
And so any idea I have that allows me to pursue a book that walks the tightrope of dread and empathy interests me -- and I pursue it.
In other words, the ideas come from anywhere and everywhere.
Thanks for asking!
I hope my books are always different. That is a goal: to never write the same book twice.
That point noted, I think they fall into two categories: contemporary literature such as "The Guest Room" or "Midwives," and historical fiction such as "The Sandcastle Girls" and "The Light in the Ruins."
But they all share, I hope, a sense of dread that keeps us turning the pages and empathy that makes us feel for the characters. (E.M. Forster said, "we all know that fiction is truer than history because it goes beyond the evidence." I think about that a lot when I'm writing.)
And so any idea I have that allows me to pursue a book that walks the tightrope of dread and empathy interests me -- and I pursue it.
In other words, the ideas come from anywhere and everywhere.
Thanks for asking!
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