Q&A with Flavia Brunetti

 

Photo by Haizea Mariti

 

 

Flavia Brunetti is the author of the new book The Web of Time. She is a writer and humanitarian aid worker, and she lives in Rome.

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Web of Time?

 

A: There’s a great story told about Franz Kafka where it’s said he wrote, “My travels, they have changed me.” I have to borrow that for a second. I grew up between two places, Italy and the U.S., and then as an adult, whether by chance or cosmic design, my career has brought me to live in several countries, each different than the last. It has been an immense privilege, though, like everything, has come with its own costs.

 

Ultimately, The Web of Time was inspired by connection, my own lived experiences in these places, the power of shared stories in shaping worlds and recognizing each other. It’s been the history, the everyday, the friendships, the cultures I’ve had the opportunity to be a guest in that truly inspired this book.

 

Some of these places became the main characters, but also the interweaving story: the Great Portals, the Web itself, the relationships—both the ones that divide and the ones that bring together.

 

In every place I’ve lived—and I hope to see many more—what’s changed me has been the uncomfortable nature of being isolated in a new place, the fact that you have to give it time, what happens when you inevitably open wider and meet new people and have new experiences and see the connection to your past life and past places, what happens when you spend enough time in a place to steep in it.

 

What’s hit the hardest is the problematic nature of global disconnection and how cultures suffer when the portals between us close, when what connects us is lost or we close ourselves to it. The strength of those connections when they surge back.

 

That’s what literally became the Great Portals of Art, Kindness, and Language, the Web spinning under the earth. The cultures of WOT bleed together, and each is stronger for exposure to the other: in this moment in history, that’s an inspiration I stand behind all the more.

 

Q: How did you create the world in which the story takes place?

 

A: The three cities—Rome, Tripoli, and Tunis—are obviously real places. The world that intertwines these, like the portals, and the Web, the deities themselves, are a combination of research and growing up reading about myths and gods and history, and how those things interconnect.

 

I grew up in a family heavily influenced by both fantastical literature and the history of Rome and entranced by myth.

 

I suppose it’s no coincidence that, in the end, the gods of WOT are a combination of the embodiment of places (Nafusa the cat god is named after the Libyan mountain range he hails from; Tevere is the Italian word for Tiber, the river that defines Rome; and Vulturnus, the most darkly chaotic of WOT’s gods, is the east wind in Roman mythology and a river god himself) and concepts that humans are fascinated with, like memories, chance, and fate.

Q: How would you describe the dynamic between your characters Jack and Anna?

 

A: Jack and Anna’s dynamic grows together as they evolve as individuals, and ultimately, the most important relationships are the ones they have with themselves.

 

They have to work together—she as a writer, he as a painter—to remember places that are destroyed, because history is disappearing, as what they used to be: it’s their combined human powers that can do what the gods themselves can’t.

 

As they move through the story, there’s an element of jealousy, of Jack getting all the credit, of the gods assuming he is the hero. There’s a part of the story where they’re separated, and when they come back together, Jack’s demons have grown.

 

Has Anna moved past a resentment that was fair for her to feel? I won’t give away the ending, but I will say that it isn’t Anna’s responsibility to save Jack; that what she ultimately does is a testament to herself and the person she is.

 

Q: Did you know how the novel would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I had an idea of how the novel would end before I started writing it, and so, of course that’s not how the novel ends. (Except for the very last line—that’s been the same since the beginning!)

 

I had a simple sketch of the story when I started, and then the characters, the world, the storyline all grew and changed and expanded as I wrote, so that when it really got kicking, I was sort of just along for the ride, wondering how it was all going to go. I hope the readers will be as excited as I was with how it turned out!

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: Right now, I’m working on shepherding The Web of Time into the world in a very particular time in history, in a moment that feels both strange to be promoting a book during but also in a moment where I truly believe stories, the power of our collective voices, and interconnectedness in respect for all cultures have a place.

 

When WOT is out, you’ll find me hard at work on the sequel. The book can stand alone, because as a reader, I tend to love series that intertwine but also wrap up their individual storylines, but the world we’re meeting in this first book isn’t done with me yet, and I hope the readers will feel the same!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I’ll be sharing as I start to work on research for the next installment of WOT (which, right now, is set to take place in Egypt, in a place we already see in this first book, but that’s all I can say!)

 

You can find me on Substack and Instagram to talk WOT, places and how we define ourselves by them, cultural cross-pollination, and the occasional is-curly-hair-better-than-straight-hair convo.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb