Author Talk: August 23, 2013
Jojo Moyes is a journalist and the author of several books, including the New York Times bestseller ME BEFORE YOU. Her latest novel, THE GIRL YOU LEFT BEHIND is about two unsinkable women, and the controversial painting that unites them, even though they live almost a century apart. In this interview, Moyes reveals the news story that inspired the book and why she is interested in writing stories about ambiguous morality, with complex characters in complicated situations. She also talks about researching one of her main characters, the artist Edouard Lefèvre, in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, what she has learned about writing an effective sex scene --- one that’s neither too prudish nor too trashy --- and why keeping her characters apart is as important to their romance as getting them together.
Question: Is THE GIRL YOU LEFT BEHIND inspired by an actual case? What influenced your decision to set the historical part of the novel during World War I rather than World War II?
Jojo Moyes: Yes, I read an article about a young woman war reporter in the Second World War who was left in charge of one of Hitler’s stores of stolen art and given a valuable painting as a “thank–you,” and it got me thinking about how morality can become almost relative in times of war, even for good people. And then I saw something about occupied France in the First World War and realized I had heard so little about this part of history, and the two things slowly started to conflate in my mind.
Q: What kind of research did you do for THE GIRL YOU LEFT BEHIND? Is there a real artist whose work you imagined as Édouard Lefèvre’s paintings?
JM: Not one artist in particular. I went round the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, looking at the Impressionists on the upper floors, and I imagined Lefèvre as a mixture of many of the artists I saw.
Q: You are clearly not an author who shies away from controversial subject matter. Your last novel, ME BEFORE YOU, is --- in part --- the story of a paraplegic man who cannot bear to live his life wheelchair–bound any longer. In THE GIRL YOU BEHIND, you use a possibly stolen piece of art as a springboard for both romance and a highly publicized claim for restitution. What draws you to these types of stories?
JM: I love stories where the answers are not black or white, stories that make you think: what would I do in that position? And it’s often news stories that inspire me by prompting this exact question. I like to write about issues that have a bit of substance to them. Yes, my books have love stories, but I hope there’s a fair bit of grit in the oyster, too.
Q: You exhibit tremendous empathy for Sophie and Liv, both of whom are unfairly condemned by public opinion. Have you ever found yourself --- or someone you admire --- in a similar situation?
JM: No, thank goodness. But the tide of public opinion turning against you, especially in an age of social media, must be a truly terrifying thing, and it doesn’t take a huge leap of imagination to guess how it would feel to be on the wrong side of it.
Q: As you illustrate in the novel, public sentiment generally sides with the claimant rather than the current owner in most art restitution cases. As a journalist, do you feel that the press takes advantage of its power to shape public opinion?
JM: I think there is --- rightly --- a huge groundswell of sympathy for those who lost precious possessions in wartime. But the farther away from the original loss we get, the less clear it can become, especially if people have bought the item in good faith. When I researched the issue, I read academic papers on the legal costs of reclamation and the length of cases, and it was clear that this has become something of an industry in itself --- not always a good thing.
Q: Do you find it easier to write historical fiction or stories set in the present day? Which do you prefer to read?
JM: I read across all genres. I often think I prefer modern–day fiction, but two of the best books I’ve read recently --- BRING UP THE BODIES by Hilary Mantel and THE MARLOWE PAPERS by Ros Barber --- are set several centuries ago.
Q: You wrote an article for a British newspaper titled “Writing a Sex Scene Is an Impossible Task.” What have you learned about writing sex scenes?
JM: I’m definitely getting a bit braver about writing sex scenes, but they’re so full of pitfalls that it’s often easier not to. The biggest problem is using terminology that doesn’t sound like either porn or a biology textbook. You don’t want anything that’s going to pull the reader out of the narrative, no matter how briefly.
Q: What is the most memorable comment you’ve ever received from a fan?
JM: Oh, since ME BEFORE YOU there have been so many --- there was a point where I couldn’t keep up with my emails. But the one that moved me most was from a woman whose sister had committed suicide at Dignitas the previous year and who said that had she known what the book was about she wouldn’t have picked it up. But having read it, she felt she had a better insight into her sister’s thought processes, and that it had given her closure. That’s an amazing thing to be told.
Q: Your love stories are famously complicated, something many readers can relate to. How do you construct the arc of a romantic relationship?
JM: Oh, that’s a “how long is a piece of string” question. It really depends on the characters and the plot. But the thing I have come to see as true for every book over the years is that it is okay to make characters complex and flawed and not always able to do the right thing --- and that keeping them apart is as important as getting them together.
Q: What are you working on now?
JM: Several things --- as seems to be the case these days. I’m writing the screenplay for the film version of ME BEFORE YOU, and I’m doing the final edits for my next book, which will be out in the United States in summer 2014. It’s a book about five very different characters --- a single mother, a disgraced dotcom tycoon, a math prodigy child, a bullied teenager and a dog called Norman --- who end up on a road trip together.
