Q&A with Antoine Laurain

Antoine Laurain is the author of the new novel Vintage 1954. His other books include The President's Hat and The Red Notebook. He was born in Paris.

Q: How did you come up with the idea for Vintage 1954?

A: It's an old idea. I think five or six years ago... but I couldn't find the trick to go back in the past! and one day in my kitchen I saw an old bottle of wine... Well...you drink an old wine then the day after you wake up in the year of the wine...why not! Let's try that.

Q: Why did you choose 1954 as the year your characters would travel back to?

A: I think the French ‘50s were rather cool. And ‘54 is the year of the flying saucers! Many people have seen UFOs in the sky this special year.

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

A: The end...they all have to be back to their time, that was the end. and it's still the end. But yes, I've found many things writing the book: the chapter in the church with Bob, the other one with Magalie and her grandma...often the characters decide for the writer.

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

A: An idea of the past. The lost days...may be another way to see the present and the future. And of course, a good trip during a weekend in the French ‘50s.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I have finished a new novel, but it's a secret!

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: I have now 17,750 ratings on Goodreads, which is rather rare for a French writer. So, thank you to the readers.

It's very hot those summer days in Paris and my cat is sleeping on the floor.

Have fun with Vintage 1954.

Sorry for my bad English.

VIVE L'AMERIQUE!

All best from France.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Yaakov Katz

Yaakov Katz is the author of the new book Shadow Strike: Inside Israel's Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power. He is the editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post.

Q: Why did you decide to write about the Israeli operation in 2007 to destroy a Syrian nuclear reactor?

A: It was a story that fascinated me for years. In 2007, I was the military correspondent for The Jerusalem Post and I wrote about the mysterious bombing that took place when news reports first broke about the airstrike. No one in Israel at the time assumed that one day it would come out that the target had been a nuclear reactor being built for Syria by North Korea. The story intrigued me and led me to investigate what had really happened.

Q: Did you learn anything that particularly surprised you?

A: The level of intimacy that existed between Israel and the U.S. on this issue. There were several reports that came out over the years about the Israeli version of events but almost nothing about what had happened in America – what arguments had taken place in the Bush administration, why they occurred, who took what position and more.

In addition, seeing how the U.S.-Israel alliance withstood what could have been a crisis when Prime Minister Olmert told President Bush that it was unacceptable not to attack and that if the U.S. was not attacking, Israel would do it.

Q: You write, "The story of Syria's nuclear reactor took place more than a decade ago, but the lessons learned from it resonate more than ever..." What would you say are the key lessons from that event?

A: The first lesson is understanding what Israel’s position is when it comes to enemies that get their hands on nuclear weapons or try to build a capability. Israel stopped Iraq in 1981 and Syria in 2007. It is the only country to use force to stop another country from building a nuclear capability. This doctrine applies as well to Iran which is continuing with its own nuclear program in violation of the 2015 JCPOA deal with the world.

In addition, this book is a potential blueprint for how Israel and the U.S. will one day need to work either together or alone to stop the Iranians. While the operation itself will be different, the way decisions were made in this book is an example of how they will need to be made vis a vis Iran.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: For now, I am considering a few ideas for a new book but am mostly focusing on my day job as editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post and the upcoming elections in Israel in September.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Benita Matofska

Benita Matofska is the author of the new book Generation Share: The Change-Makers Building the Sharing Economy. She is the founder of the group The People Who Share. 

Q: How did you come up with the idea for Generation Share, and how did you select the people to include in the book?

A: I wanted to demonstrate the breadth of the Sharing Economy, its social impact and evidence how it is changing and saving lives. I believe that in order to change the world, we need to change the narrative and give visibility to the multitude of positive, stories of social change and community transformation that can be found in large numbers all over the world. 

To change the world, we need to change the narrative and this book is a mission to achieve that.

As I say in Generation Share:

“You only find things (or people) when you go looking for them. I went to look for Generation Share, for the brave, positive, change-makers. I intentionally sought out the positive stories, the stories of hope. Positivity is an important characteristic of the Sharing Economy because it provides a much-needed antidote to the disease of cynicism and negativity that is destroying our world. It’s the language of this new economy. It offers people healing, hope and inspiration, much needed at a time when hate, totalitarianism and populism are winning votes. We have a global crisis of responsible leadership and to tackle our complex problems, we need solution-focused, socially conscious, but above all, positive leaders – change-makers. I believe, that by elevating the status of good, positivity and consciousness, we can begin to change our malfunctioning world.”

I wanted to tell the powerful human stories of change-makers worldwide, both extraordinary and ordinary people who, despite in some cases serious obstacles, are building communities and sharing in a variety of ways, demonstrating the power of sharing to transform our society.

I wanted to bring these stories to a wide audience, through powerful photography, so people could connect with these stories, to give them visibility and make the Sharing Economy accessible and tangible for people.

For this reason, I teamed up with photographer with purpose Sophie Sheinwald, as I knew she had the talent and skills needed to capture the spirit and humanity of Sharing on camera and make these positive stories visible. I wanted to better understand who these change-makers are; to explore the different demographics.

As I say in the book introduction:

“Generation Share isn’t about the system, it’s about the people who are creating the system and it’s the people who share that have long been my interest. I wrote this book because I wanted to know who was behind the Sharing since this is a people’s economy and it’s the people (the Sharers) who are building it. Collectively, these are the human beings I call, Generation Share. But who exactly are they? Are they young? Old? Rich? Poor? Women? Men? Non-binary? Disabled? Able-bodied? Do they belong to or come from particular religions, ethnicities or cultures? Do they live in cities? Villages? Or on islands? Are they artists? Anarchists? Entrepreneurs? Or everyday folk just doing their best?”

What I discovered on this three-year long journey as I explain in the conclusion:

“This is a pan-generational, pan-geographical, pan-economic, pan-gender group. They demonstrate explicitly that Sharing knows no boundaries. Generation Share, rather than a demographic, is a mind-set, a lifestyle that we can choose to adopt. It represents a new consciousness that is emerging, an awareness that consumption doesn’t lead to happiness or wellbeing, but that through Sharing and harnessing the power of technology for good, we can create a more equal, human, happy, healthy, resource- efficient, connected and sustainable economy.

What’s apparent is that Sharing is everywhere, if we look for it. It’s in our homes, our communities, our schools, our businesses, our cities, our villages. It’s within each of us, in unlimited supply. Sharing isn’t an age thing, a gender thing, a culture thing; it’s simply, a human thing. As Generation Share shows, to share is to be human.”

In terms of story selection, I used a number of techniques and approaches. Through my decade-long journey as a leader and global expert in the Sharing Economy, I had been fortunate enough to meet and hear about some extraordinary change-makers, sharing in a variety of ways.

In addition, through the work with the charity I set up, The People Who Share, and the campaign Global Sharing Week, I had developed relationships with a large number of Sharing organisations worldwide. For each location that we planned to visit, I also connected with key organisations who have a focus on sharing, sustainability, community, social enterprise.

These organisations in turn connected me to change-makers. UnLtd India, for example, introduced me to several change-makers in their network including Ashok Rathod, our Football Sharer, and Inir Pinheiro, our Village Sharer. In addition, there were stories that we discovered on our journey. Sophie Sheinwald met someone on the train who on hearing about Generation Share told her about Natasha Wood, our Laughter Sharer.

For each change-maker in the book, though, there are thousands of others we could have featured. The 200 change-makers who appear are really a taster of who is out there. Each person interviewed for the book was asked a simple question: “What does Sharing mean to you?” The result is an array of different perspectives, that each make up the whole and demonstrate the spectrum of the Sharing Economy.

Q: What do you see looking ahead when it comes to the sharing economy?

A: The Sharing Economy is now a decade old. Over the next 10 years, we will see a redefinition and a greater understanding of the breadth and impact of the Sharing Economy. Generation Share is leading the way in evidencing how the Sharing Economy is already saving millions of lives and has the potential to do so much more.

In the future, we’ll see an increase in Sharing activity that is specifically for environmental and social benefit. Much of this will come from the necessary response to the pressing issues of climate change and poverty. We’ll see innovations in ShareTech (technology for sharing resources) developed and delivered to bring sustainable social change.

Some of the bigger “unicorn” companies will also start to deliver social impact, whilst other new startups, community projects and individuals will begin to embrace sharing for the common good. Large corporations will come to the realization that the sole pursuit of profit will lead to their downfall and all organisations to survive will need to consider how they can create social and environmental value.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: Generation Share is both my current and my next project. As the world tour so far has shown, in and of itself it is becoming a movement. To change the world, we need to change the narrative and this “Big Yellow Book of Hope” aims not only to inspire people to action, but also to change the focus away from what’s wrong with the world to what’s right with it.

The idea is to take Generation Share to as many towns, cities, rural areas in the world as possible, to show that the world over change is happening in a positive way and we need to give life and light to that. There are audiences worldwide that will be inspired by and identify as part of Generation Share. In parallel to our world book tour, we intend to create photography exhibitions, a film, build communities of Sharers. This is only the beginning.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: The production of this book is important. We deliberately sought out a brave, change-maker publisher, aligned with the values of Generation Share. Policy Press have been incredibly collaborative and have worked with us to produce a high quality, ethical product, made from waste materials.

Each copy sold helps to educate a girl in the slums in Mumbai (via Aarti Naik’s Sakhi school for girls) and plant a tree (via the Eden Reforestation Project). The inks used in the book are organic and every aspect has been mindfully considered. The book is also designed and presented in a very accessible way, so people can connect with it.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Aug. 3

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Aug. 3, 1920: P.D. James born.

Q&A with Rhodri Evans

Rhodri Evans is the co-author, with Catherine Whitlock, of the new book 10 Women Who Changed Science and the World. He is an astrophysicist and a regular contributor to the BBC.

Q: How did you and Catherine Whitlock decide on the 10 women to include in the book?

A: I was asked to write this book after Carlton (the UK publisher) had published a book by me and Brian Clegg entitled 10 Physicists Who Transformed Our Understanding of Reality. The 10 physicists in that book were from a list of the “10 best physicists” in the London Observer newspaper, so Brian and I did not choose them.

After the success of that book, Carlton contacted me about writing a book about important women scientists, saying that I could choose the 10. I decided to find a woman to co-write the book with me (it would seem strange for a book about women scientists to be solely written by a man), and I also decided that we should choose two from astronomy, two from physics, two from chemistry and four from biological/medical sciences.

I chose Catherine Whitlock to co-author the book with me because her speciality is in the biological/medical sciences, whereas mine is in physics and astrophysics. Catherine and I thus chose five each. 

Marie Curie was my automatic choice for chemistry (Catherine chose the other chemist), and for physics I knew of Lise Meitner’s work but less so Chieng-Shiung Wu. For astronomy, Henrietta Leavitt is one of the most important women astronomers in history. My other choice for astronomy, Cecilia Payne (who discovered that the sun and other stars are mainly composed of hydrogen) had to be dropped from the final list due to time constraints. 

Q: As you mentioned, one of the women you wrote about was Marie Curie, and you begin the chapter by saying, "If you were to ask the public to name a female scientist from history, they would probably name Marie Curie." Why do you think she's better known than many of the other scientists included in the book?

A: I think there are a few reasons why Marie Curie is so well known.

Firstly, she is the only person in history (man or woman) to win the Nobel Prize in two different sciences (physics in 1903 and chemistry in 1911). Thus, she is not only a famous woman scientist, but famous amongst all scientists. She was also the first woman to become a professor at the University of La Sorbonne in Paris. Thirdly, she coined the term “radioactivity" and discovered two new, highly-radioactive, elements (polonium and radium). Lastly, she had to leave her native Poland to get a university education, and had to overcome many hardships and obstacles in her life. 

I think her story and her achievements have captured the imagination of people (men and women) over the decades.

Q: Do you see any common threads running through the lives of the various women that led them to pursue a scientific career?

A: Actually I don’t. One could argue that it was Marie Curie’s father who inspired her to go into science (her elder sister became an M.D.), but not all the women here had such inspiration from their fathers.

I think the reasons for these women going into science is as diverse as their personalities. It may have been a parent, a book that they read, a teacher who encouraged them, or just their natural talents lying in the sciences rather than the humanities. Their reasons for going into science would be as diverse as the reason men go into science.

What is important to remember, however, is that nearly all of them needed to be more determined than their male counterparts, for the reasons mentioned in answer four.

Q: What difficulties did they face as women in a field dominated by men, and what do you see looking ahead for women in science?

A: All of these women faced the prejudices that existed against women in a male dominated career like science. In addition, some of them had to leave their native countries to continue their education and their careers, something their fellow male scientists rarely, if ever, faced. Some of them had to juggle being mothers with being scientists, and faced criticism for continuing their scientific careers after they became mothers.

It is true that the number of women in science has increased since the early 1900s, but they are still in the minority in most sciences. Despite changes in society, women still carry the main burden of raising children, and even in the last few years a Nobel Laureate made sexist comments about women scientists in an international conference - see here and here, for example.

So, although the hardships faced by women in science are maybe not as great today as they used to be, I still think that they face more obstacles than men. 

Interestingly, more and more women ARE entering physics than ever before. When I was a physics undergraduate in the 1980s only 2 percent of our class were women (5 out of 200). Today, the percentage is typically about 30 percent in most universities. Still a long way from 50 percent, but a vast improvement from a generation ago. 

Q: What are you working on now?

A: Just before I finished writing this book, I took up a university teaching position in Namibia in south-west Africa. My book-writing career is currently on hold as I concentrate on the research project which brought me to Namibia - we are building Africa’s first millimetre wave telescope which we will use to image for the very first time the black hole at the centre of our Milky Way galaxy.

I am also the Namibian coordinator for the DARA project, - Development in Africa with Radio Astronomy. I hope to return to writing popular science books in the near future, when these exciting research projects become less time consuming. 

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: It would be interesting for Catherine and myself to know readers’ thoughts about their “favourite” women scientists. Do they have a woman scientist who influenced them, who inspired them? We are not suggesting that these 10 are the only important women scientists, but they are representative of the undervalued contribution that women have made to science over the last 100 years and more.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Daniela Petrova

Daniela Petrova is the author of the new novel Her Daughter's Mother. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including The New York Times and The Washington Post. Born in Bulgaria, she lives in New York City.

Q: You've said that you drew on your own experiences with infertility while writing Her Daughter's Mother. How did you create your characters Lana and Katya?

A: I went through infertility years ago and, while it didn’t work out for me, I thought that having a child with the help of a donor can create and interesting parental triangle and can be a good premise for a mystery. I wondered what if a woman who is pregnant through a donor egg encounters her anonymous egg donor? And what if she starts stalking her and then the young woman goes missing and the pregnant woman finds herself a prime suspect in the investigation?

I wanted to give an opportunity to each of the three main characters--the mother, the father and their donor--to tell their own story, so I structured the book with three alternating narrators. 

I was particularly interested in the relationship of the two women, Lana, who carries the baby and Katya, whose genes the baby will inherit. I wrote character sketches in the beginning, but Lana, Katya, and Tyler didn’t really take shape until I started writing. As narrators, they very much influenced the story. Especially Katya, whose powerful voice surprised me; she took over her own narrative and pushed the story into a direction I hadn’t anticipated.

Q: As you note, the novel is told from several perspectives. Did you write it in the order in which it appears, or did you focus more on one character at a time and then move things around?

A: A bit of both. During the revision process, once I knew how the story would end, I tried to focus on one narrator at a time, especially because their voices are quite different. But often making changes in one of the storylines necessitated changes in the other, so I would go back and forth between different narrators. I also had to reshuffle their chapters numerous times, hoping to achieve greater suspense. 

Q: The novel takes place in New York City. How important is setting to you in your writing?

A: I believe setting is an integral component of storytelling. It can change the flavor, the mood of a story. It can influence the characters’ beliefs and actions and it can determine their struggles. For example, in Her Daughter’s Mother, I needed the novel to be set in a big city where it would be easy for the characters to blend into the crowd. But also, where people could feel isolated and lonely.

On a scene level, I believe the setting helps a scene come to life. It tells us a little bit more about the characters. Where a character chooses to, say, read a book—curled up on the couch, in the park, in a busy coffee shop, or while eating dinner alone in a restaurant—tells us so much about that character. New York City has been my home for more than 20 years, and I wanted to celebrate many of its iconic locations, like Central Park, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Columbia University campus.

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

A: First and foremost, I hope readers will enjoy the story. That they’ll lose themselves in the book’s world.

In addition, I wanted to show how two people can read the same event differently, how we can hurt and undermine each other without meaning to, how we can misinterpret the actions of others. So often we unwittingly hurt those we love most because of our fears and insecurities, which we keep locked up deep inside. 

Lack of communication can destroy relationships, and I wanted to explore that idea by making the reader privy to the thoughts of my three main characters. If only they had been honest about their feelings, they wouldn’t have hurt each other, and a lot of the unfortunate outcomes could have been averted.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I’m working on my second novel—also psychological suspense—based on my experience as an immigrant in the ‘90s, before smart phones and social media.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: It was important to me to include some elements of my heritage, culture and language in the story, which is why I made Lana and Katya of Bulgarian origin like me. But that’s where the similarities end. Unlike them, I grew up in Bulgaria during Communism. I was in my third year in university, when I fell in love and dropped everything to get married and follow my husband to America.

I landed in New York, at the age of 22, barely speaking any English and nearly gave up my dream of becoming a writer. While working as a cleaning lady and a nanny, I took ESL classes at the YMCA at night and checked out books I’d already read in Bulgarian from the local public library to help me learn English. It took me a long time before I could go back to college and eventually graduate school and even longer to find the courage to write a novel.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Q&A with Laurie Gelman

Laurie Gelman, photo by Jamie Gelman

Laurie Gelman is the author of the new novel You've Been Volunteered, a sequel to her novel Class Mom. She lives in New York City.

Q: Did you know from the beginning that you'd be writing a sequel to Class Mom?

A: Actually, I didn't. I figured I'd done enough just writing the first one! But when the book came out, people would approach me with all these great ideas of things that Jen could deal with, so I realized her story was not yet finished.

Q: How do you think your character Jen has changed from one book to the next?

A: I think Jen has been on a journey to be a better person for the past two books and she takes a big step in You've Been Volunteered. Otherwise, she's her same snarky self.

Q: What do you hope readers take away from You've Been Volunteered?

A: I hope they laugh a little, learn valuable lessons about volunteering for anything and realize what a great show American Ninja Warrior really is.

Q: What are some of your favorite books?

A: I love this question! The House On The Strand, The Red Tent, Bossypants, The Nightingale, and Giraffes Can't Dance.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I'm starting the third (and final!) Class Mom novel and trying to finish a book I have been attempting to write for five years.

Q: Anything else we should know?

A: I really don't like olives but I like olive oil.

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a link to Laurie Gelman's You've Been Volunteered Blog Tour.