What are some of the challenges facing the novelist who writes about Naziism, anti-Semitism, and the Holocaust?
Lucy Beckett: The challenges of writing about Nazism and anti-Semitism (the novel is not about the Holocaust as explained above) are the challenges facing any serious historical novelist: how to understand the pressures and prejudices of the time, their roots in history, in grievances and ignorance, in deliberate lies of one kind or another, in propaganda (the period between the wars saw an explosion in the use of the media by politicians). The point of it all is to imagine, and to persuade one’s readers to imagine, what it was like to be there, then, to be as truthful to facts and to life as one possibly can. Fiction is something made, not necessarily something made up. Ignatius Insight: There are many different conflicts in the novel, including the obvious background of two world wars. But is it accurate to say that the most important conflicts explored in the narrative are those in the realms of religion and philosophy? What are some of the key points of those conflicts? Lucy Becket
