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Local favorite Tracy Chevalier (Girl With a Pearl Earring) has a new novel out just in time for Christmas! Falling Angels is the story of two young girls growing up in London at the start of the twentieth century, their friendship with one another, and with a boy who works at the cemetery. Falling Angels, like Girl with a Pearl Earring, is a Book Sense 76 pick*. Since we'd already chatted about her previous book, we thought we'd check in with Tracy again via email and see how her new book is doing.

BookSense.com: What's the reaction been to your latest novel, Falling Angels?

Tracy Chevalier: Mixed to good. Many reviews and fans have said that I can write well, and that the structure is interesting (the book is narrated by 12 characters), but that they just haven't taken it to their hearts the way they did Girl. That doesn't bother me too much -- I am well aware that Girl is a special book, the kind of thing an author produces once in her life. I've had my special book, and I just feel lucky that that has made people willing to read whatever else I write -- as long as I keep the quality of the prose strong.

Mind you, some people have said they actually prefer Falling Angels to Girl -- that it's a more complex book, with deeper issues involved and a more mature structure. I won't argue with that!

What kind of research did you do for Falling Angels?

First and foremost, I spent a lot of time doing volunteer work in Highgate Cemetery, where much of the novel takes place. I still do, in fact -- I do woodland clearance and I give tours. It's a famous Victorian cemetery in north London, not far from where I live. I also read a lot of books about the era, about Victorian death and mourning rituals, about how cemeteries were laid out and run, about house interiors, about social etiquette.

What was it about the Edwardian era [1901 - 1910] that attracted you?

It was a time when values began to change. Victorians were emerging from a repressed, staid period, symbolized by Queen Victoria's wearing of black mourning clothes for the 40 years after her husband's death. Once she died there was a gradual throwing off of the past and an embracing of the new. At the same time, the cemetery's fortunes began to change. It had been a grand place, but over time it grew shabbier and unkempt -- and now it is completely overgrown with ivy. I wanted to explore that point of change, the new freedom and the sacrifices that go with that.

Do you like writing from a child's point of view? Have you been tempted to write any young adult or teen novels?

Read an excerpt

I do to an extent, but not solely. Originally Falling Angels was told in the third person, looking over the shoulder of one girl. But I found that point of view too limiting, and so I rewrote the book, narrating it in the first person from a dozen points of view, children and adults alike. That was a lot more fun.

I've never really been tempted to write a young adult book (though publishers are trying to tempt me!), mainly because I fear that if I try to write specifically for teenagers, they won't want to read it! I have been astonished that so many teens are reading Girl with a Pearl Earring. I never thought a teenager would be interested in a painter in 17th-century Holland. But that's why the book works with that age group, I think -- they can tell I'm just writing, rather than writing with a specific teenage agenda in mind.

Is it funny to you that people here are talking about Falling Angels as your second (rather than third) novel?

Yes. I keep hearing about the second-novel syndrome, the sophomore jinx, etc. But Girl with a Pearl Earring was actually my second novel; my first, The Virgin Blue, was only published in England in 1997, and sank gently to the bottom of the pond. The publisher pulped 12,000 copies in the months before Girl came out. Now that edition of The Virgin Blue is a collector's item. Heh.

Anyway, my U.S. publisher has bought The Virgin Blue and plans to publish it in the next year or two. People are surprised by their delay in bringing it out, but it's actually quite difficult to know when to publish it, and how to present it to the American public. I'm proud of it, but it is a first novel -- quite vivid but a touch clunky. I think my writing style has come a long way since then. Readers will need to understand that when they buy it.

Is there any book that you want to give everyone for Christmas?

Oh, that's hard -- I've become so picky over the years about books I like. Very few make the cut. The last novel I really fell for hard was Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible, but it's time to move on to something new. I might give Kent Haruf's Plainsong, or Jim Crace's The Devil's Larder.

Falling Angels

Search for Tracy Chevalier's books on BookSense.com

Falling Angels is a Top Ten November/December 2001 Book Sense 76 pick
"Chevalier quietly and seemingly without fanfare totally pulled me into this story, which begins as our characters awake in London at the dawn of a new century, January 1901. For 10 years we follow two families and get totally engrossed in their lives and the changing history unfolding behind them. This is a remarkable follow-up to Girl With a Pearl Earring."
- Laura Cummings, White Birch Books, North Conway, NH

*Girl With a Pearl Earring was a January/February 2001 Book Sense 76 pick
"I found the cultural setting and the description of the artist's methods and tools a wonderful balance to this very simple story of love and worship."
- Nancy Hancher, The Bookshelf, Cincinnati, OH

Further reading:

• Our earlier interview with Tracy Chevalier
• In May 2002, everyone in Seattle will be reading Molly Gloss
• Listen to both sides, says Sarah Willis
• Historical London novelist Sarah Waters
• Happily writing young adult novels: Jennifer Holm

Author photo by Jon Drori.

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