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Comment from the book world in December 2024

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December 2024

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'Hope is mandatory'

16 December 2024

‘I saw this eccentric Dickens place and thought, why not? If I had not made that capricious decision, fundamentally based on oysters, Dickens would never have answered this question. There would have been no Demon Copperhead, I promise you. When people think they make their own destiny, they're full of it...

It felt supernatural, but it was made of a combination of all the things in that room. As a person obsessed with class, I always clicked with Dickens, because of his championing of the underdog. The other element of magic was probably my sleep deprivation after a gruelling book tour...

My job is to find the inspiring bits and hand them over to you in a way that makes you feel like a different person. The difference between pessimism and optimism is finding the right ending. I believe that hope is not optional. Hope is mandatory. Hope is a duty. When you give up hope you disconnect from any investment in a better future. And that's not fair to the kids. Ultimately, I'm a mammaw (grandma), I've got to do this for the kids...'

Barbara Kingsolver, author of 18 books, including the novels The Bean Trees, Flight Behaviour, the Poisonwood Bible and Demon Copperhead, which won the Pulitzer Prize and the Women's Prize for Fiction, in The Times.

http://barbarakingsolver.net/

 

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'I've been lucky'

2 December 2024

As someone who's on their sixth novel and has had their ups and downs, I'm aware of how privileged and lucky I have been, and what a shock it can be for debut writers - all the reality of that world, and that new voice and when the book doesn't quite take off, it's a shock.

I'm lucky that I had this other job as a screenwriter, also lucky to have a publisher who can ride out the ups and downs. The Understudy didn't do very well but they were prepared to stick with me and then obviously One Day did very well, so I am concerned for those who don't find their way until their third novel, which might be the one where they find their voice and readers discover them. I feel for new voices and recognise I've been lucky to have been supported through the ups and downs of my career...

To me there's a tang to AI that's really horrible, it's really nasty. It's like strawberry flavouring, it's nothing like strawberry at all... I am resistant to it. I'm sure it will get harder and harder to distinguish between human voice and AI but certainly in the creative world I am actively turned off from it. It's not even amusing to me, it's horrible.'

David Nichols, author of six novels which are about love and the experience of love in various life stages, including the bestselling One Day, which was made into a highly successful Netflix series, in The Bookseller.