V
V asked Claire Fuller:

Hello! Thank you for reading my review and thank you SO MUCH for writing Bitter Orange, what an absolutely fun read. Apologies if this has been asked before but in the acknowledgements you thank Leonard Cohen for providing you with a soundtrack; was it any Cohen in particular or just his whole catalogue? Also was there any reasoning behind the albums that they purchase/listen to in the book? Thanks!

Claire Fuller Hello Vanessa,
I'm so pleased you enjoyed Bitter Orange. I created my own playlist from Leonard Cohen's songs, and chose all the melancholic ones which seemed to suit the mood of the book. And I chose the albums that Peter buys firstly because they were released at an appropriate date, and because they're albums I know well and love. I do often sneak in things that I personally particularly like or am intrigued by into a book (like raining fish in Swimming Lessons). But, I don't know if you know, song lyrics are copyrighted, and it would have cost a lot of money for Cara and Peter to sing the words to America by Simon and Garfunkel when they're on the roof, so to get around this, I had them get the words wrong!
Best wishes and happy reading,

Claire

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