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Amy Bloom is the author of four novels: White Houses, Lucky Us, Away, and Love Invents Us; and three collections of short stories: Where the God Of Love Hangs Out, Come to Me (finalist for the National Book Award), and A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You (finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award). Her first book of nonfiction, Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Crossdressing Cops and Hermaphrodites with Attitudes, is a staple of university sociology and biology courses. Her most recent book is the widely acclaimed New York Times bestselling memoir, In Love. She has written for magazines such as The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, Elle, The Atlantic, Slate, and Salon, and her work has been translated into fifteen languages. She is the Director of the Shapiro Center at Wesleyan University.
Amy Bloom's website
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Random House Reader's Circle: Away is loosely based on a real
woman in history. Can you tell us a bit about her life, and how you came upon
her story? Ultimately, how did you make her story your own?
Amy Bloom: I don't know that I'd call Lillian Alling a "real woman in
history." There've always been bits and fragments of a story about a foreign
woman, mute or silent by choice, who came up the Telegraph Trail, determined to
walk to Russia. There are no records of her arriving in Ellis Island and no
records of her life in Alaska and, of course, one of the first questions is: If
she didn't speak, how did they know where she was going? I ignored all the
fanciful parts and also all the shoddy investigations into her story (this was
the golden age of yellow journalism–when whole wars were made up to sell papers)
and thought instead: If you weren't crazy or particularly adventurous, why would
you make this extraordinary trip? And I thought, I would only do it for love.
RHRC: Lillian Leyb's journey takes her across the globe, from Russia to
New York's Lower East Side, to Seattle, to Alaska, to Siberia. Did you chart out
her epic journey before writing? How did you conceive the arc of the ...
Poet, essayist, and naturalist, Diane Ackerman is the author of many highly acclaimed works of nonfiction, including A Natural History of the Senses -- a book beloved by readers all over the world and the volumes Deep Play, A... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Away
Try:
The Zookeeper's Wife
by Diane Ackerman
Louis Bayard is the critically acclaimed bestselling author of nine historical novels, including Jackie & Me and The Pale Blue Eye, which was adapted into the global #1 Netflix release starring Christian Bale. His articles, ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
White Houses
Try:
Courting Mr. Lincoln
by Louis Bayard
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