MaryAnn asked Chris Bohjalian:

I am waiting for The Guest Room to be released in audio. Tell me what helped inspire this story? I loved that you gave one of the women a narrative voice in the book.

Chris Bohjalian Hi, MaryAnn,

First of all, I am so sorry I am only answering this now. Usually I get an alert when there is a question, and I missed it or it got lost in my spam.

Perhaps the answer is not a “what” inspired that inspired the novel, but a “who.”

In 2013, my family and I brought one of our daughter’s friends with us to Yerevan. The young woman was part Armenian, but had never been to Armenia. Our daughter and her friend were 19 at the time. Our daughter’s friend was leaving a day before us and was on a six a.m. flight to Moscow. The plan was that I would meet her in the lobby of our hotel about 3:30 in the morning and bring her to the airport.

I got to the lobby first, about 3:15, and while I was waiting I saw another young woman paying off the bellman to go upstairs. She was clearly an escort, and she was roughly the age of my daughter and her friend. It broke my heart as a father — but I had a sense that here was the kernel for my next novel.

My hope is that “The Guest Room” is a novel of suspense with characters you care about deeply, especially a couple of very remarkable women: a suburban history teacher and mom, and a young woman trafficked to America. It’s a thriller about a marriage in crisis that one moment you wish more than anything you could take back. But I hope also that it raises awareness of human trafficking and sexual slavery.

Incidentally, there are two audio readers: Mozhan Marno and my own daughter, Grace Experience. Grace brings Alexandra to life. I am utterly thrilled with the production.

Thank you again for this question.

All the best,

Chris B.

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