Did you need to map out these 'alternate worlds' in order to write the novel? The story explores how one action can ripple through to different consequences. I find most things out as I rattle my fingers on the keyboard, and that was one of those things. It just happened, and then happened again. Why did you decide to include the pivotal moment of a girl breaking her arm, repeated with different outcomes, at the heart of the novel's structure? and who doesn't want to write a book like that?Ĥ. And part of the book was just a chance for me to ponder this, and also to think about what it's like to be human, how difficult that can be, and how hard it is to know other people, in a philosophical sense.īut also, it was a chance to write a mysterious and creepy story about a cottage that shouldn't exist deep in a forest you shouldn't be able to get to, where a witch lives who can offer you a deal you shouldn't take. We all know what unfairness looks like, what it feels like, whether we're kids or grown ups - it's a universal feeling, injustice and it's easy to find yourself powerless on the other side of it (perhaps even more so as a child). The Worlds We Leave Behind is about a boy called Hector (Hex, for short) who gets beaten up by an older girl and who is offered a chance to get his own back, to right the injustice.
Can you tell us about The Worlds We Leave Behind, and what inspired it? What Levi brings is a joy that I'm being understood!ģ. When it came to writing this second book, I knew I was writing something for Levi, and so I was able to think, 'What would I like to see Levi draw?' and let that guide me.
He really gets what I'm talking about in the stories and it just fits his style so well, that it becomes really hard to imagine anyone else illustrating these words. What do you feel Levi Pinfold's illustrations bring to The Worlds We Leave Behind?Įven the best of illustrators can be hobbled by being matched with a text that just doesn't suit them, and so what Levi really brings is a deep and instinctive feeling of being right. Furthermore they also link to the two books that I made with Emily Gravett, The Imaginary and The Afterwards - there are subtle links and connections between all four of the books!Ģ. The tone of voice and style is the same, shadowy and strange, and there are a couple of characters in common between the two books. The Worlds We Leave Behind is the second book I've made with Levi, and it is certainly connected to the first one, The Song from Somewhere Else. Is The Worlds We Leave Behind part of the 'group' of novels you have created with illustrators Levi Pinfold and Emily Gravett? Are there connecting threads or themes?
Read a chapter from The Worlds We Leave Behindġ.
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