His novelLost Girlswas adapted into a Sundance darling Netflix film.
But there is one glaring trait that he shares with all of us: He screens his phone calls.
(The club declined to choose a March selection afterdroppingMy Dark Vanessa.)
Credit: Doubleday Books
Can you elaborate on how you discovered this story?
At what point was it clear to you that you had a really good book at play?
I just had open-ended conversations, seeing what they thought of a book like this.
Lo and behold, everybody was interested and really up for it.
I had not expected that enough time had passed, and that people would be ready to open up.
I ended up taking seven or eight different trips to Colorado to do face-to-face meetings with the family.
How did you decide the scope of this book?
Would it be about the science of schizophrenia, or would it all be about childhood trauma?
So at no point did it get really touchy in that sense.
So that was tricky, as a technical challenge.
Whereas here I was trying to recreate events from long ago.
I wanted to be especially sensitive to everyones point of view.
Do you have any hopes for real-world implications in the wake of this book?
With true crime, certainly you hope that visibility gets raised and shakes something loose in the case.
Theres the famous Joan Didion line, We tell ourselves stories to live.
In my view, we tell ourselves stories for understand things better.
What do you think readers will connect with most in this book?
But Im ready to be surprised, too, by what people see in it.
What does it mean to you to see this book getting such meaningful early attention?
Im thrilled that its getting some nice attention.
What kinds of pop culture are you turning to for your own distraction from quarantine?
Its on [Amazon] Prime and Sundance Now.
So thats been a nice distraction.
