Melissa Connelly is the author of the new novel What Was Lost. She lives in Brooklyn and in Western North Carolina.
Q: What inspired you to write What Was Lost, and how did you create your character Marti?
A: I wrote this because the kind of sexual abuse between male teacher and female student was so common when I was a teenager. There were no guard rails of any kind.
One girl I knew was taken away on weekends by her art teacher and no one thought anything of it. Years later I learned from her of the sexual abuse that occurred. Three different girls in my high school later told me stories of the assistant principal molesting them.
Marti came to me slowly. At first, I wanted to make her an unlikable character, but then her true nature of resilience and compassion snuck up on me and seeped all the way in. I wanted to depict an America before Roe v. Wade, ironically having no idea that by the time is was published, we’d be back to the same place.
Q: The writer Chirlene McCray said of the novel, “Multilayered mysteries unfold with taut precision and suspense as Connelly walks a tightrope between past and present, coercion and consent, redemption and revenge.” What do you think of that description?
A: I love that description! In the tag line for my book, I said Marti felt complicit in her abuse and I received a lot of pushback on using the word complicit. But I insisted on keeping it in.
The point is she feels complicit not that she is complicit. That line between coercion and consent was what I was going for all along; it doesn’t matter if the 14-year-old is willing, it’s still abuse.
And yes, I created suspense with certain threads in the book. Who doesn’t like suspense? Redemption and revenge are great contrasts––I couldn’t have said it better.
Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: What Was Lost was my first title and I bounced between several others over the years: And This is an Old Story, This Truth, This Hard and Precious Stone, Once a Rag Doll, before circling back to What Was Lost.
I like it because it honors not just Marti’s journey, but Peter’s (he’s a character I have a soft spot for). They both lost a lot of their childhood which impacted their adult lives. And they lost their friendship with each other.
I toyed with variations like Lost and Found because by the end they have both found so much. But the journey of the book was to discover what they lost.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?
A: That change is always possible in life and that a reexamination of your past often gains new insights.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m working on a second novel. In theory, it’s more autobiographical; it’s about an interracial family with young children who lose their father to a sudden illness.
While those are the bare facts of my life, the mother isn’t me, and the children are decidedly not mine (I’d never dare to write about my own children!) But the journey through grief and understanding what makes a family is one I know.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I am so thrilled my book is coming out and I’m available for author talks to book groups or any interested group. My website is: https://melissaconnelly.com
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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