Thank you, very much.
Ÿ What inspired The Boy Next Door’s theme of an interracial relationship in the Zimbabwe of the 1980s and 1990s?
The genesis of book was two pronged: a suggestion from an editor that I write a memoir about growing up in Zimbabwe during the 1980s and 1990s, and a phone call I received from Bulawayo in 2007 about a fire that had broken out in the neighbouring house of my childhood home. The two events came together one morning as I sat in front of the computer, and typed out that first line, ‘Two days after I turned fourteen the son of our neighbour set his step mother alight,’ a line which seemed then to come from nowhere! So, Lindiwe’s childhood draws from my childhood in Bulawayo (the memoir suggestion) and the fire bit draws from that phone call. The wonder of fiction is that I was at liberty to fuse two events which happened in completely different time zones and create something new. Ian, appeared, and he is entirely a work of fiction.
Ÿ We see Lindiwe Bishop grow from an observant youngster, into a wilful teenager, and then tentatively into motherhood, you have created a character that will be with us for a long time. How did you set about creating her and her development?
Lindiwe’s transformation was an organic process; there was no conscious decision to give her a particular voice or to shape her character and personality. Once she was there, sitting on that veranda reading her Sue Barton book, where we first set eyes on her, her voice took over. Who she is, I think, is set up on those opening pages of the book. It’s wonderful when readers come to me and tell me how much Lindiwe’s growth from childhood to womanhood rings so true, how her voice changes from this naive teenager to this sophisticated woman… in a way, I can’t take too much credit- she was such a vivid (and delightful) presence!
Ÿ Lindiwe’s mother is so tautly drawn and the ambivalent relationship between mother and daughter throughout the book is pretty much unbearable! How did you cope with creating it?
Yes, I have had quite a bit of feedback about this relationship; one reader said that they were pretty much traumatised by it, especially its climax.
In one way you could describe Lindiwe’s mother as this type of religious zealot, very strict and unforgiving in her beliefs. But, on the other hand, she is also very much the wronged woman, and you can see where her attitudes and rigidity may spring from - as a form of self protection, a way to preserve her dignity. Throughout the book Lindiwe calls her mother ‘Mummy’ which I think is a word which shows the real need she has for her mother to hold her and smother her with an all forgiving, absolute, almost infantile, mother love. Only at the very end, does Lindiwe, set up some distance between them and starts referring to her as ‘my mother.’
I was sad that their relationship developed the way it did; it was almost shocking for me…but sometimes, things which are broken cannot be fixed and this is something Lindiwe realises, I think, when she says that she is grown; she has to, in a sense, leave the things of childhood behind, and begin life afresh, with her own family.
Ÿ How did you decide on the career for Lindiwe – the mix of advertising administrator where she is involved in creating a make believe world, and her academic research role which essentially looks at life as it is?
Lindiwe’s career paths involved some borrowing from my own. While at university in Harare I worked in an advertising firm where I really did have to go around and collect doves for a campaign! I, like Lindiwe, studied psychology, and that research project of hers on co-operatives is imaginatively borrowed from my own.
Ÿ The way that you showed the strengths and weaknesses of ‘international development’ was particularly insightful, how hard was that to research and write?
While I was at university during the late 1980s and early 1990s I did come across what Ian calls, ‘fundies’ that is international development workers, experts. Most were wide-eyed, African enthusiasts who really did want to make a kind of socialist paradise in Zimbabwe; the opportunity was there! Harare, and to a lesser extent Bulawayo, was teeming with ‘experts’ from Cuba, America, Europe who were teachers, doctors, engineers, doctors of economics…. They were primarily young, straight from university, under the guidance of, still not entirely jaded, old ‘Developing World’ hands…and they came to this newly independent county which had been isolated for so long, full of enthusiasm, energy, good will, and yet could become so easily disenchanted when the ‘locals’ didn’t quite follow the script- so the mix between local and foreigner was bound to get rather interesting.
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Ÿ Ian was such a complex character, seemingly isolated by his own community, but in fact we learn so much about Zimbabwe through him. Is he based upon someone you knew?
Ian is this wonderful mystery to me. His voice was so loud and clear to me. I could literally ‘hear’ him. Where does he come from? No, he is not based on someone I know. I think that he is an amalgamation, a fusion, synthesis, some kind of organic combustion, or alchemy of all the white boys I came across while growing up in Zimbabwe: the white boys of the youth club I went to when I was just about the only black member, the white boys of the high school I went to in my last two years, the white boys who I interacted with at the advertising agency, the white boys who would come traipsing in at the employment agency I worked in when I came back to Zimbabwe….all of them becoming this highly energetic person of Ian who is full of racial slurs at the beginning because of the type of upbringing he has had and how he has never, in away, had to question his place in the world (although, in a way, he has had to do so at a personal, family level) until he meets Lindiwe who challenges him about his careless utterances. What surprised me with Ian is how he grows, but in this realistic way…there are readers who feel that I am too soft on him, and others who feel I’m too harsh… I think that what is really striking about him is that he embodies the notion of change.
Ÿ His career as a conflict photographer is based on real life characters, can you tell us why you chose to give him a role that observes the near neighbour South Africa, rather than Zimbabwe itself?
I read The Bang Bang Club while I was still in Zimbabwe long before Ian came barrelling into my imaginative landscape. This memoir, written by two war photographers who chronicled the highly volatile 1990s in South Africa, really stuck with me; how it told these very personal stories within the canvas of political revolution. I remember being a bit stuck about what Ian should be doing, it didn’t seem enough to just make him what he calls a ‘Domestic Engineer’, it felt that he wanted to be something more, and so really, like a light bulb switching on, or perhaps my eyes glanced up and caught the spine of the book on my shelf, Ian had to be, was, a war photographer. Photography gave him an artistic outlet which I felt tapped into some very sensitive part of him that was always there (and which I think is what really draws Lindiwe to him despite his rather coarse mannerisms), and it also brings him head to head with his unthinking attitudes. Because this period in the book is taking place in the 1990s it made more sense to have Ian in South Africa where so much was going on in Soweto and there was the whole anticipation before Mandela’s release; Zimbabwe, at that time, was relatively quiet and thriving in many ways.
Ÿ Lindiwe and Ian’s relationship survive enabling them to begin to create a life for their family, I just wondered if there was another ending that would set them in Zimbabwe?
I would imagine that there would be many kinds of endings that would set them in Zimbabwe, both hopeful and not so. I think that having them out of Zimbabwe takes away from them that burden of constantly having to define themselves against history, of constantly having to say, “Look, I’m not this.” It frees them.
Ÿ Which character in the book do you most identify with?
It would have to be Lindiwe, I guess, since she has borrowed so much from my youth!
Ÿ I enjoyed checking out the Zimbabwean soundtrack to The Boy Next Door, which Zimbabwean musicians of today would you recommend?
Oliver Mtukudzi, of course! I want to listen to some music from the indie rock band the Noisettes which has Shingai Shoniwa as vocalist. But really, I have great nostalgia for the bands I used to listen to in my university years: The Bhundu Boys, Ilanga, and South African bands like Stimela and Juluka.
Ÿ The book has a variety of covers – a young girl facing the camera but her face is only partially seen, and another with a black woman gazing out of shot. What do you think about these? Were you involved in this part of the creative process?
I was very fortunate that both my US and UK publishers sought my opinion and approval of the jackets, which is not the standard especially with a debut novelist. I immediately loved the US jacket when it was sent to me, this partial image of a young girl, something about the curvature of her lips told me, yes, yes, that’s Lindiwe. The first UK cover was an elaboration of the US cover which I also loved, and then have come the recent jackets with the grown up Lindiwe, which are actually derived from the Dutch jackets of The Boy Next Door. I love the fact that there is both a young and older Lindiwe!
Ÿ What did you study at University and did you plan to become a writer?
I studied psychology at the University of Zimbabwe and Child Development at the Institute of Education, University of London. I have always wanted to write, to tell stories, right from the days in Bulawayo when I was a devotee of the wonderful Public Library, and where books, stories took me away from the tedium of life in a small, sleepy town, especially during school holidays.
Ÿ How did you set about getting the book written and published?
From the moment of inspiration and writing that first line the book had a life of its own. Lindiwe and Ian wanted their story told! Getting published was what I would call ‘serendipity’, all the elements coming together at the right time by some joyous accident, or luck, if you will. I was fortunate enough to meet someone at the Geneva Writer’s Conference who forwarded a sample of my writing to an American agent who then took me on.
Ÿ Photography plays such a revealing part in The Boy Next Door I wondered whether you had a favourite photographer or had visited any photography exhibitions recently?
I love looking at black and white photographs, particularly non-stylised ones, which just seem to capture a moment in someone’s life; they are so evocative and emotive. I love the photographs of Willy Ronis. Some years back I went to an exhibition of his work in Oxford, and I remember being alone in this room of all these photographs which spanned from 1920-1995 and it was just an incredibly moving experience to be surrounded by ordinary people whose lives had been invoked as art.
My husband is also an accomplished photographer and he introduced me to the art of it, just watching him in the tiny dark room working old school style with these strong smelling chemicals; seeing the prints starting to develop when they are submerged in the chemicals is an almost magical, mystical thing. I must say here that Ilo’s studio in the book is imaginatively based on a real place in Harare.
Ÿ I can imagine that in the run-up to the Orange Prize and since winning it you have been incredibly busy, how in hectic times do you make the creative space to write? What is your writing routine?
I’ve been very lucky in that I was already well into my new novel when all the madness of the Orange Award took over. It is essential for me as a writer to have that creative space where my characters and the story can completely breathe. I am lucky enough to not need total silence all the time when I am writing, or to need a particular physical space or routine, so I can write in a variety of environments. I don’t really have a rigid routine. Some days I write tons, some days a little, some days nothing, but what’s essential for me is to always feel that my head is buzzing, that there are things brewing, that the writing is only a moment way. When I’m not writing I’m doing the next best thing- reading!
Ÿ As a child what were your favourite books? Who are your literary influences? Which of your Orange Prize competitors’ work did you admire the most and why? What book are you reading now? Which books are you reading with your children?
I read lots of Enid Blyton books because they were well represented in the Bulawayo Public Library, my second home growing up; Sue Barton (yes, Lindiwe borrowed that too); Nancy Drew….I loved Ring of Bright Water by Gavin Maxwell, the story of a man who looks after these otters in the Hebrides- reading this was quite an experience for a girl growing up in a landlocked country who had never been to the sea, let alone set eyes on an otter! I also loved Shane by Jack Schaeffer, which I recently re-read. I have just bought The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins which I want to read again. I have an eclectic reading taste. The book I’ve really been taken with this year is The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris, which is almost a philosophical work. I’ve just finished The Passage by Justin Cronin, my fist foray into vampires! I’m going to re-read Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali. Next, I’ll be dipping into something by José Saramago. I’m also looking for a good literary biography. I’ve been reading The Call of the Wild by Jack London with my children.
Ÿ What books would you recommend for a book club such as ours? (We read authors from the African diaspora and authors who write about the black experience, culture or societies. Recent reads have been JM Coetzee, Brian Chikawava, Maggie Gee, Andrea Levy, Gemma Weekes and we are about read the new Aminatta Forna)
Chimamanda Ngoizi Adichie’s The Thing Around Your Neck- I particularly loved the story ‘Ghost’; Damon Galgut’s In a Strange Room, JM Coetzee’s Summertime, Kachi A. Ozumba’s The Shadow of a Smile, Maaza Mengiste’s Beneath the Lion’s Gaze and Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed.
Ÿ Which book would you like to have written? Are you working on a new book? Can you tell us a tiny little bit about what it’s about?
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood is one of the books I would have liked to write. And The Hours by Michael Cunningham. One, for the chilling scope of its imagined landscape, and the other for its achingly beautiful perfection rendered in so few pages.
I’ve just finished working on something. I’m very superstitious about talking about it until it becomes a book, proper. What I can say is that it is not set in Zimbabwe.
Ÿ You lived in London for a while, what did you make of the city and life in Britain?
I loved London for its mix of people and cultures, something is always going on somewhere!
Ÿ What question do you think I should have asked you about the book and what is the answer?
Perhaps something about Ian’s style of talking, but I’m glad you didn’t because it means you didn’t have any problem interpreting words like ‘lekker’ or ‘skellum’!
Ÿ This interview is going into the August edition of Lime magazine and so all interviewees are being asked this question: Notting Hill carnival is Europe's biggest street carnival. Please share a memory of a carnival experience you have had.
In my youth I went to Cropover in Barbados which takes place in August and which traditionally celebrates the harvesting of the sugar cane crop. I enjoyed watching the ‘jump up’ and the Party Monarch on the very beautiful and windy East Coast
My edited version of this interview can be found at www.comelime.com
Irene will be appearing at the Edinburgh International Book Festival on Saturday 28 August with Kachi A Ozumba, author of The Shadow of a Smile.
EVEN IF you never see the person again, a significant former love remains with you. That woman or man is woven into the tapestry of your life – maybe as a subtle shading here and there, maybe as a vibrant pattern smack in the middle. Without those threads, the weaving would be something else. You would be someone else.
