The Child Thief
What can our readers expect from your current novel The Child Thief?
The Child Thief is about a man who makes a promise to his daughter; he vows to bring back her friend from the kidnapper who has taken her away across the frozen wilderness of the Ukrainian steppes. So readers can expect an unpredictable story about strength and humanity and courage. They can expect a criminal thriller with a dash of historical fiction and a helping of social nightmare thrown in.
How much research did you have to put into Western Ukraine in the 1930s?
I didn’t set out to write a historical novel so much as a novel with a historical setting, if that makes sense, so I only did as much research as was necessary to give the story the authenticity it needs. The Child Thief isn’t about the political and social climate of the time, but that climate does provide an intense and dangerous backdrop to a more personal story.
How did travelling as a small child affect your writing?
The simple answer is ‘enormously’. I think it gave me a huge variety of experiences to draw from and it developed in me a great interest in places that are, perhaps, a little out of the ordinary. When I was a child I lived in some very remote areas and that’s probably why my novels are often set in locations where characters are forced to resolve their own problems. In The Child Thief, the main character has no one to help him and he can’t pull out his mobile phone or his GPS, and he can’t put on his hi-tech cold weather gear. He has to fight and use his wits to survive and fulfil his promise to his daughter.
You have been writing stories for as long as you can remember, what did you first write about?
That’s a great question. The first stories I can remember writing were very dark and sombre. I always had an interest in things that made me feel scared, so that’s what I wrote about. I think that probably comes across in my writing now because my characters are often faced with one kind of darkness or another (as they are in The Child Thief) and I love to see how they deal with the situations I throw at them. I still have a lot of my early stories, hidden in a bottom drawer – which is probably where they should stay!
Where did your inspiration come from for the novel?
This is always a difficult question for me to answer because I’m not a planner. When I started writing The Child Thief, I had nothing more than an image in my head. I saw a bleak, wintry landscape, a family struggling to survive, and I saw someone coming into their lives bringing something terrible; something that would change them and challenge them and turn their world upside down. At that stage I didn’t know what the stranger was bringing or how the main character would react to it, so the direction of the story and what happens was as much a surprise for me as I hope it is for the reader.
Who is your inspiration in terms of other writers?
Like many authors of my generation, Stephen King was a great influence on me when I was younger. I don’t mean to say that I write horror stories, but he’s a successful writer with an easy style and some great tales to tell, so he was a big inspiration. More recently, though, I’m inspired more by specific books than by particular authors. Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and L P Hartley’s The Go-Between are among my favourite novels, but I can take inspiration from almost anything. If I read a good book, I often come away thinking ‘I’d like to have written that’.
Have you always had an interest in the World Wars?
I don’t think I was particularly interested when I was younger, but as I’ve grown older I’ve developed a greater understanding of the personal ordeals and sacrifices people have made. So many of us live such comfortable lives that it’s hard to imagine the things our grandparents and great-grandparents had to endure. In The Child Thief, my main character Luka is a veteran of WW1 and I know that my great-grandfather was a driver with the Royal Field Artillery in France during WW1 and one of his brothers was killed at Ypres. These things seem to have more meaning now that I’m a little older and have a family of my own, and I have huge admiration for how ordinary people can cope in extreme situations.
What is next in store for your writing?
At the moment I’m working on a novel which is set in central Russia during the Civil War of the 1920’s. Like The Child Thief, the historical setting is a backdrop, rather than being the story itself, and it’s about a man who deserts from his unit and returns home to find his village completely deserted. The story follows him as he tries to find out what happened and what has become of his family. It’s coming along very well at the moment and I’m getting very excited about how it’s going to turn out. It’ll be a perfect companion for The Child Thief.
You were shortlisted for the Best First Novel Award, how did this affect your confidence as a writer?
It was great to be shortlisted and it was an amazing boost to my confidence. I think most writers are wracked with self-doubt; it just seems to go with the job. We spend so much time alone with our writing, without anyone telling us how we’re getting on, that any kind of positive feedback is like a life-line – especially if it’s a shortlisting for a prestigious award!
Interview by Lucy Walton
Tagged in Dan Smith