Q&A with Sacha Lamb

 

 

 

Sacha Lamb is the author of the new young adult novel The Forbidden Book. They also have written the YA novel When the Angels Left the Old Country. They live in New England.

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Forbidden Book, and how did you create your character Sorel?

A: Perhaps the most famous work of the Yiddish theater is S.Y. An-sky’s play The Dybbuk, which premiered in 1920 and was later adapted to film. The play was so popular that it almost redefined the folkloric figure of the dybbuk, an unquiet ghost that possesses a living person.

 

An-sky’s play uses elements of folklore that he discovered as an ethnographer for the YIVO institute’s investigations into Jewish life in Eastern Europe, so I was inspired by both the play itself and by the same stories he based it on.

One significant element of dybbuk stories going as far back as the 17th century in Jewish folklore is that we often see young women who are possessed by male spirits.

 

This gendered aspect to spirit possession in the Jewish tradition was fascinating to me, and I wanted to create a character for whom being possessed is a means of accessing a personality and identity that she never considered before.

 

“Madness” and possession for Sorel are a gateway to a more authentic self.

Q: The writer Isaac Blum said of the book, “Rooted in Jewish history and brimming with magic, The Forbidden Book is at once a heart-pounding mystery and a poignant tale of identity and found family. Whatever the opposite of forbidden is (mandatory?) that's what The Forbidden Book should be.” What do you think of that description?

A: I love that blurb! I think it really encapsulates the different dimensions of the story. It’s a murder mystery, and it’s a ghost story, and it’s about politics and book censorship, which are big issues. But it’s also about Sorel and Isser, two teens, and their relationship with their father/father-figure.

 

Readers should know that this is a book that draws deeply on real moments from Jewish history that aren’t so well known, but I’m using that history to tell a really universal story, which is the story of parents and children who don’t know how to connect with each other, and the tragedy that can result from the older generation refusing to change for the sake of the younger.

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

A: During the editorial process we knew that we wanted a title which would refer to the book-within-a-book, this secret manuscript that Sorel is looking for.

 

My editor Arthur suggested The Forbidden Book because it’s a title that applies to that text within the story, but it also makes the reader think, oh, what’s forbidden about? Things that are forbidden are tempting.

 

And the book is so much about why things become forbidden and the importance of questioning those rules and pushing back against them when they stop us from growing. So the title suggests the question the book itself is asking: should books ever be forbidden?

Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?

A: Think about your own community spaces and what kinds of discussions or texts aren’t allowed within those spaces.

 

For many of us in the USA right now, there are school board and library meetings where people are trying to restrict children’s access to books which accurately depict the world they live in (for example, by discussing racism or LGBT+ identities).

 

The new presidential administration has also pushed to get “DEI language” removed from government websites and national monuments, even when all that language does is accurately describe our history and our country.

 

I want everyone to look at the world around them with curiosity rather than fear of the unknown, and stand up for those people whose civil rights are being threatened by the demand that they keep silent.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: My third book hasn’t been announced yet, but it should be soon! It’s a fantasy story about a young girl who wants to learn alchemy to help her disabled mother, but when she apprentices herself to a mysterious noblewoman she gets tangled up in royal politics, and has to decide how far she’ll go to reach her goals.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: If any readers want to support the authors of banned books, check out the American Library Association’s list of most challenged titles (https://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10), and buy a book for a friend or ask your local library to order one. And ask your government representatives to stand up for intellectual and artistic freedom and the rights of libraries!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb