Amy Cuomo
asked
Chris Bohjalian:
The Light and the Ruins is one of the most impressive and thrilling books I've read. (Actually, I listened to it on CD. . .) Can you share what inspired you to write this story?
Chris Bohjalian
Thanks, Amy. That's so kind of you!
“The Light in the Ruins” began as a re-imagining of ‘Romeo & Juliet." I had seen my daughter in a production of "West Side Story," which I love, and I wanted to embark on my own version.
This time it was going to be set in Tuscany at the end of the Second World War. I have always savored love stories – especially epic love stories set in war. Books such as ‘Atonement’ and ‘The English Patient.’
And while the love story is instrumental to the novel, the tale grew beyond that. Now, as you know from listening to the audio, it’s the story of two young women, one of whom was a partisan battling the Nazis and Blackshirts. The other is a Tuscan nobleman’s daughter who falls in love with a German lieutenant.
I simply found Serafina -- and her parallels to Cristina -- so interesting that Cristina's relationship with her German lover grew from a love story into a cautionary tale.
Incidentally, the novel is set in one of my favorite parts of the world: That part of Italy called the Crete Senesi – the hills and woods and the eerily lunar-like landscape south of Siena. I bike there and do some of my best writing in a medieval granary that figures prominently in the tale.
“The Light in the Ruins” began as a re-imagining of ‘Romeo & Juliet." I had seen my daughter in a production of "West Side Story," which I love, and I wanted to embark on my own version.
This time it was going to be set in Tuscany at the end of the Second World War. I have always savored love stories – especially epic love stories set in war. Books such as ‘Atonement’ and ‘The English Patient.’
And while the love story is instrumental to the novel, the tale grew beyond that. Now, as you know from listening to the audio, it’s the story of two young women, one of whom was a partisan battling the Nazis and Blackshirts. The other is a Tuscan nobleman’s daughter who falls in love with a German lieutenant.
I simply found Serafina -- and her parallels to Cristina -- so interesting that Cristina's relationship with her German lover grew from a love story into a cautionary tale.
Incidentally, the novel is set in one of my favorite parts of the world: That part of Italy called the Crete Senesi – the hills and woods and the eerily lunar-like landscape south of Siena. I bike there and do some of my best writing in a medieval granary that figures prominently in the tale.
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