Katie asked Mary Beth Keane:

When I was reading this, I assume at first it was set in the 50s or even earlier. Was that intentional? It gave me a feeling of the timelessness of the problems here, marriage, addiction, mental illness, etc.

Mary Beth Keane No, that wasn't intentional, though I associate the 50s with a type of innocence, and I know I wanted to capture Kate's innocence, and Peter's, and Lena's, in a way, and also how vulnerable it is. The problems they face are timeless, yes, and they also cross barriers of class and culture. One of the most moving things about riding the success of this book has been hearing from people whose backgrounds are nothing like mine, people who live on the other side of the world in some cases, who say these families could be stand ins for theirs. We're all sons and daughters.

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Thank you for your very realistic and heart-breaking portrayal of mental illness. Did this subject matter endure multiple edits? IMO you hit all the right notes.

Bill Horne asked Mary Beth Keane:

This question contains spoilers… (view spoiler)

Maddy asked Mary Beth Keane:

How do you come up with a good, solid conflict in a novel? I can come up with characters and traits etc I admire and would like to use, but I struggle fitting them into a concrete story that has a problem to resolve that is also interesting to read.

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When I was reading this, I assume at first it was set in the 50s or even earlier. Was that intentional? It gave me a feeling of the timelessness of the problems here, marriage, addiction, mental illness, etc.

More Answered Questions

Thank you for your very realistic and heart-breaking portrayal of mental illness. Did this subject matter endure multiple edits? IMO you hit all the right notes.

How do you come up with a good, solid conflict in a novel? I can come up with characters and traits etc I admire and would like to use, but I struggle fitting them into a concrete story that has a problem to resolve that is also interesting to read.

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