Q&A with Sarah Healey

 

 

 

Sarah Healey is the author of the new novel A Week in the Life of Amelia Nash. Her other books include Red Blue Green. She lives in Cornwall, UK. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write A Week in the Life of Amelia Nash, and how did you create your character Amy?

 

A: I confess that the inspiration came from my own experience of being at my mother’s bedside when she was dying. My mother and I had a difficult relationship - although we were very different from the characters in the book - and I spent a week sitting beside her when she was unconscious and unreachable. I think the character of Amy started to form in my mind as I sat there.

 

Q: How would you describe the mother-daughter relationship in the book?

 

A: It’s a powerful but toxic bond. Amy, as a child, is completely dependent on her mother, but her mother’s life is chaotic and troubled. They love each other deeply, but they aren’t good for each other.

 

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

 

A: When I write a novel I always try to write towards a planned ending, but sometimes the process of writing takes me in a different direction! With this one, though, the story was always going to end in Amy’s mother’s death - the open question was how Amy would feel about it, and what secrets she would reveal as the end approached.

 

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

 

A: I hope readers are inspired to reflect on the themes of family, love, and mortality. I also hope they feel intensely immersed in Amy’s experiences, both as an adult and as a child. A good book should feel like a dip into someone else’s life.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m working on a new novel - I love writing, and I never stop! Writing fiction is a wonderful way of engaging with the world; it’s a way of life for me.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: This is my fifth novel, so don’t forget to check out the other four! Red Blue Green and Having Fun are out of print now but still available as ebooks, and The Day of the Trial and The Night Watch - both with more of a crime flavour - are available in paperback.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb