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 Catherine, a middle-aged television documentary maker, finds
herself the central character in a book that has appeared in her
home. It tells a secret she thought nobody knew.
From there Knight takes us with Catherine as her settled and
apparently happy life unravels before her, until she is forced
to confront a past she wants to bury.
The story twists and turns, misdirecting us, but ultimately
never leaving the possible to become fanciful. We, like the
other characters, are forced to examine our prejudices and
assumptions.
Knight is a former BBC documentary maker and has written scripts
for the BBC and Channel 4. She talked to Reuters about her book.
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Q: Where did the idea come from?
A: I’d written a previous novel. There were chunks in
that about a real event that took place in my adolescence with a
friend of mine. I sent it off to my agent, then thought – what
if it does get published? That would be such a betrayal. How
terrible if you read something and had no idea it would be about
you?
Q: Why do you think there’s been such a rise in ‘suburban
noir’ recently?
A: I don’t know, I think its always been there. To have
an out-and-out thriller with a female at its heart is what’s
different. The domestic sphere is very familiar; we want to read
about women who feel more real, women that we can identify with.
Q: Do we all fear that it wouldn’t take much for us to
unravel?
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A: Yes, your home is your ultimate place of safety – or
should be. There is an expectation that home is perfect, but it
never is. We all have things that are wrong. There’s a moment that
Catherine escapes from home to work, which suddenly doesn’t feel so
safe either – as a writer, you take away the things that feel most
secure.
Q: Is there a deeper message – something more than ‘who is
telling the truth here?’
A: Can you ever really know everything about anybody? It’s
playing with how quick we are to judge others. Don’t assume you know
who that person is: you may not.
Q: What prejudices are you using here?
A: People feel they have a right to know things, so there is a fury
that we haven’t been told. The husband feels he has a right to know.
Seeing his wife in that particular way, and knowing nothing about
it, overwhelms him and alters his judgment. If you keep a secret for
long enough, keeping the secret becomes bigger than the secret
itself.
Q: Have you read any books that inspired you to write this
one?
A: "The Stranger" by Sarah Waters -- her character Rita who
is a very creepy and controlled narrator. It was certainly in my
head, that atmosphere, being first person and slightly
claustrophobic.
(Editing by Michael Roddy/Jeremy Gaunt)
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