Was there a specific place that inspired the setting for the city of Baltese?
No, but after I finished writing The Magician’s Elephant, I saw a movie that took place in Bruges, and I couldn’t concentrate at all on what was happening in the movie because I was so struck by how much Bruges looked like the city of Baltese, the city I had imagined. The fortuneteller tells Peter that “truth is forever changing.” Why is this an important line in the story, and why did you want to share it with children in general? I think this comes back to the whole idea of the impossible suddenly becoming the possible. We have to remain open to those moments when everything can change. I actually think that children are much better at doing this than adults are because they are much less likely to see things in a black-and-white way. All of us, children and adults, need to remind ourselves that the impossible can become possible. That’s one of the great gifts of stories. What was your predominant feeling while writing this book? Was it faith, or fear? Do you know how your endings wi
