Twin Truths by Shelan Rodger *Blog Tour: Q&A*
TWIN TRUTHS
by SHELAN RODGER
What is the truth? And how do you recognise it when you hear it?
Jenny and Pippa are twins. Like many twins they often know what the other is thinking. They complete each other. When Pippa disappears Jenny is left to face the world alone, as she tries to find out what happened to her 'other half.'
But the truth, for Jenny, can be a slippery thing.
Having read The Yellow Room by Shelan Rodger last year, I was very keen to read anything else she wrote and was delighted to be invited on the Blog Tour for Twin Truths by Dome Press.
Once again, I found myself relishing Rodger's writing style. Her prose is immersive, absorbing and poetic. She creates interesting characters and through a storyline that is partly a thriller, partly a coming of age novel and partly something much more psychologically complex, she explores challenging themes like identity, loss and love with an admirable creativity and depth. The use of twins really gives Rodger's a chance to play with language, as well as the reader, and to develop characters who are brilliantly and intricately interwoven adding a whole new layer of depth to the novel.
'We were like mirrors facing each other, our identities reflected again and again in images of images, disappearing into infinity.'
The first half of the book focuses on Jenny and her arrival in Argentina as she tries to find out what happened to her sister. The narrative voice is endearing, sometimes more flippant and sometimes a little disjointed but always cleverly conveying the emotional state of Jenny as well as reflecting the intimate relationship she had with her twin. There is a chaos or recklessness to Jenny that is unsettling and although intrigued by her, there is also a sense of concern for her fragility. The location and setting are convincingly portrayed and add to the sense of vulnerability Jenny seems to be experiencing as she tries to accept Pippa's death and work through her grief.
Part Two goes back in time to the girls childhood and the narrative is much more linear. I really enjoyed this part of the novel. I liked finding out more about their relationship, their past and the dynamics that existed between them and their mother. Rodger is not an author who shies away from difficult subjects and there are scenes and events that are emotive and traumatic, but they are intrinsic to the plot and as always, well executed through an accomplished use of language.
'I can brushstroke the scene, but the detail remains a prisoner of isolated nouns, unconnected, like a pile of tin cans on a rubbish heap'
The final section of the novel does indeed offer a 'whiplash twist' as Amazon assured me it would, but actually this really fails to do justice to what Rodger's achieves in this last part of the book. It is shocking, incredibly clever, thought provoking and challenges the reader to reconsider everything they thought they knew. It's delivered brilliantly with such assured and polished prose.
Twin Truths is haunting, moving and above all, a beautifully written book. There are lines to savour, images to reread and appreciate and a fluency to the prose which is almost entrancing. And alongside this, are characters that are intriguing and a storyline that keeps the reader engaged from the opening line. It seems a tall order but it is one met with utter ease from a writer that is definitely one to watch. I recommend!
TWIN TRUTHS BLOG TOUR
Can you
sum up your novel Twin Truths in one or two sentences?
A psychological suspense novel about a young
woman who goes to Argentina to retrace her twin sister’s last steps and confronts
the slippery reality of truth.
What was
the inspiration behind this novel?
The title of Twin
Truths appeared in my head one day and haunted me. It played with a double
meaning: two truths and truths about twins. I knew then that my main characters
were twins and that I was going to write a book that explored the elasticity of
truth. The novel is fuelled by my
fascination with what shapes our sense of personal identity, a fascination
which I’m sure is partly due to the multi-cultural, patchwork landscape of my
own life.
Did you
find it more challenging to write about twins rather than just siblings? How
did you overcome these challenges?
In some ways, I think it was actually easier to
write about twins, because there is such a pool of preconceptions to tap into. They
also run in my family – both my brother and sister have twins, so my paper
twins have real cousins!
Your
novel, The Yellow Room, is about identity and memory and this book is about
truth. Which comes first- the fascination or interest in exploring a theme or
does a character or idea for a story reveal itself to you and then leads you to
incorporate a theme? Or is it much more organic and unplanned?
The fascination around a theme tends to come
first; this turns into an idea for a story and then a character comes along to
make the story their own. But I am more of a gardener than a planner: planting
a seed, watering it and giving it space and time to grow.
Can you
tell me a little bit about your writing process? Do you have any rituals, set
places for writing, daily word targets ….? And how much planning do you do
before you start writing?
Writing a novel is a
bit like having a relationship. When you are getting to know someone and
falling in love, you sort of live with that person in your head - and the same
happens writing a book. It’s also a journey: I set out with a picture of where
I want to get to, but no real idea at first of how I’m going to get there…
My favourite place to write is in
front of a window. I have written overlooking a magnolia tree in Sussex, a garden
with giraffes at the fence in Kenya, and a patio with a jungle-sized cactus in
Spain. My writing desk is a protected space; I never do my day job in the same
place. What I love more than anything is to literally create space in my diary,
disconnect completely and go away somewhere to write for a week. My mother’s
veranda in Kenya is a writer’s haven.
What one
thing would you like readers to take away from reading your book?
I would like the book to stay with you beyond the
last page.
You have
travelled a lot and spent time within different communities around the world.
How does this influence your storytelling?
Yes, the question ‘Where are you from?’ is one I find difficult to
answer! I was born in Nigeria, grew
up in an aboriginal community on the Tiwi Islands of Australia, and moved to
England for the first time at the age of eleven. After university, I spent nine
years in Argentina, and have continued to migrate between different landscapes
and cultures, moving between the UK, Kenya, and Spain. The
result is a strange dynamic in my life: strong emotional connections with
certain locations and cultures combined with a sense of belonging to none – or
all of them.
This spills over into my writing, which is haunted by the
question of what creates our sense of who we are. How much is our personal
identity moulded by what happens to us as a child, by the important
relationships in our lives, by the place we grow up or live in – the culture,
the landscape, the language? Whether
we move between countries, or relationships, or just different phases in our
lives, we all experience multiple realities, and this is at the heart of my
storytelling.
Are
there any authors who have influenced your writing or that you reread?
I’m sure I’ve been influenced by many authors,
but mostly through a process of osmosis. Those that fascinate me most are
authors who push the boundaries, not just in terms of subject but also
language, authors like Kazuo Ishiguro or Alice Sebold or Ruth Ozeki, to name
just three, who create stories that are both compelling and thought-provoking,
stories that linger beyond the last page.
One book that had a profound impact on me, which I read in my early
twenties, was The
Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell.
It was quite simply the book that I would love to have written; the whole
concept of the same story told in different books from the perspective of each
character absolutely blew me away.
Are you
working on anything at the moment?
Yes, I’m working
on my third novel, another psychological drama with twists. It is inspired by
something that happened just before my father died. My mother and I had found
an old type-written manuscript of a novel he’d forgotten he’d written; he read
it, changed the last line with a shaky hand, and handed it to me. That was the
last time I ever saw him. In my novel, a box of writing by the father she never
knew finds its way into the hands of a dramatherapist living in London, called
Elisa, and takes her to Kenya, where a twist presents the one person from her
past that she never wanted to meet again.
Oh my goodness, I can't wait to read that already!
Thank you so much for joining me today Shelan and for answering my questions in such detail. I've really enjoyed this interview and wish you all the best finishing your third book.
I hope everyone will get themselves a copy of Twin Truths - it really is a book that stays with you after the last page.
Twin Truths is published on the 15th March 2018 by Dome Press.
Shelan’s
life is a patchwork of different cultures and landscapes; she was born in
northern Nigeria, growing up among the Tiwi - an aboriginal community on an
island north of Darwin, and moved to England at the age of eleven. She then
travelled to Buenos Aires after graduating in Modern Languages from Oxford, and
stayed for nine years. Then another chapter in England, followed by six years
in Kenya on flower farms by Lake Naivasha and the lower slopes of Mount Kenya.
Now,
Shelan lives in Andalucia, Spain. She has learnt in and outside many classrooms
around the world, teaching in some of them too. Her professional career has
revolved around international education, learning and development, with an
emphasis during her time in Kenya on anti-discrimination.
Shelan’s
first book, Twin Truths, was
published by Cutting Edge Press in 2014, followed by Yellow Room, also in 2015.
As of
2017, The Dome Press acquired the rights to these two titles and Yellow Room was released in October
2017, with Twin Truths following in
March 2018.
Twitter: @ShelanRodger
Website: www.shelanrodger.com
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