Q&A with Nicole Bokat

 

Photo by Jay Lindell

 

 

Nicole Bokat is the author of the new novel Will End in Fire. Her other books include the novel The Happiness Thief. She lives in New Jersey.

 

Q: What inspired you to write Will End in Fire, and how did you create your character Ellie?

 

A: We had a fire in my house when I was a teenager. I wasn’t home at the time, and no one in my family was hurt. But the damage was extensive and we lived in a trailer home in our driveway during rebuilding.

 

Ellie is not an autobiographical character, but we share similarities—feelings, reactions to circumstances, personality traits. However, the events of the book (other than the actual home fire) are entirely fictional!

Q: How was the novel's title chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: The title comes from a line in Robert Frost’s poem “Fire and Ice.” On a literal level, the book questions whether this event was arson or accident. Without giving away too much, the fire signifies how the coveting another person’s life can run amuck.

Q: The writer Susan Shapiro said of the novel, “Nicole Bokat’s Will End in Fire is a page-turning mystery, a suspenseful domestic drama, a deep psychological character study of warring siblings, and a heartbreaking addiction saga all rolled into one poignant, powerful novel." What do you think of that description?

 

A: It’s very generous! I love to mix suspense with the psychological traumas people experience when life goes awry—as it often does.

Q: Did you need to do any research to write the book, and if so, did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: I did a lot of research on burn injuries, how they are treated, and how patients can perish or recover. In the process, I learned what a complex field wound care is, and how devasting severe burns can be on both the human body and psyche.

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I have a very long chapter outline for a new novel. It involves a lost inheritance, a suspicious death, and is told from three points of view.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I’m a huge fan of several contemporary women writers, including Maggie O’Farrell, Flynn Berry, Emily St. John Mandel, and Rachel Cusk. I thought Less by Andrew Sean Greer was a comic masterpiece and Michael Cunningham’s The Hours is one of my most treasured books.

 

But my favorite writer of all time is Jane Austen for her insight into character, social norms, and her priceless dialogue.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Nicole Bokat.