Christine Leunens is the author of Primordial Soup, described by the Sunday Times as ‘a remarkable debut novel’; A Can of Sunshine, selected as one of the Best Books of the Year 2013 by the New Zealand Herald; and Caging Skies, the Prix Médicis-nominated book adapted into the Academy Award-winning movie Jojo Rabbit, directed by Taika Waititi.
Her latest novel In Amber’s Wake is set in New Zealand during the tumultuous era of the anti-nuclear movement, Springbok tour and the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior. It’s a powerful and passionate work that shows the staggering lengths some people will go to for those they love.
A movie adaptation of In Amber’s Wake, with a screenplay by Christine, is currently in development by the producer of the Academy Award-winning Thelma & Louise.
Ahead of her interview of Christine at our festival, Queenstown writer Jane Bloomfield asked the internationally bestselling author and screenwriter, sometime model, part-time violinist and fulltime cosmopolitan a few nitty gritty, behind-the-scenes questions.
What do you read for pleasure? What are you reading right now?
Mostly literary and historical fiction. Dr Monty Soutar’s Kāwai: For Such a Time As This.
You were born in the US to an Italian mum and Belgian dad, what languages did you speak at home, and which language do you write in?
English, because my mother needed to learn and practice her English.
Where do you write, do you have a special room, routine, do you write every day?
I have an office space, rather than a room, sort of open and vulnerable to invasion from other family members. My routine is undergoing a major overhaul, as I try and fit in fitness, which does get comical at times.
When and where did you learn to play the violin?
I joined a youth orchestra when I was around ten years old, and the conductor handed us each an instrument, some sheet music and got us all to just start playing, explaining as we went along. It seems kind of surreal today.
What books did you read as a child, were you a bookworm?
I read everything I could get my hands on in the public library. I started with children’s series but then moved to adult fiction when I probably too young – Albert Camus’ The Stranger, and the Brontë sisters, not fully understanding what was going on but feeling there was a strange adult world to navigate out there.
Your paternal grandfather was a well known Flemish painter and sculptor, Guillaume Leunens, was he an influence on your creative life?
My grandfather was the one to predict that one day I would become a writer from the letters I used to write. He influenced me not just in art, but also made me keenly aware of the many challenges artists face in life.
Do you remember your high school English teacher?
Of course. Every time I start a sentence with a “but” or end one with a preposition.
Did you keep diaries or write letters or stories as a child?
I used to write long letters to family and close friends when I was young.
Did you have your sights set on becoming a model when you left school and moved to Paris?
I was studying a year at university in Montpellier, France, when I was approached by an agency and offered an apartment in Paris and what to me seemed like a very timely summer job. I had no idea it would soon have me travelling around the world and forever after preferring faces with no make-up.
You lived on a French stud farm in France in your 20s, do you ride?
I used to, until an accident left me too afraid to anymore. Occasionally I have the odd dream of galloping through a forest and jumping a log the way I used to – without falling.
Did you suggest Taika Waititi play Hitler (young Johannes’s imaginary friend) in Jojo Rabbit?
In an email, “Hey, Taika, don’t take this the wrong way, but I could really see you as Hitler.” But it was when Searchlight suggested it that Taika took the idea seriously.
Is attending the Oscars as glamorous and fun as it looks?
Absolutely, and a little daunting too. A few times I had a natural reflex to go to someone I recognised, only to realise, hey, wait, that’s such and such, and stopping in my tracks.
What advice do you have for wannabe screenwriters?
Persist.
Is the mother-in-law in A Can of Sunshine based on anyone you know?
Edith? Hm. I’m a bit of a Dr Frankenstein in that I tend to borrow a bit of this and that from various people I know to create a given character, but then somehow they come to life on their own and take on their own unique personality.
What are the repeating themes in your books, if any?
How someone can get themselves impossibly enmeshed in something that they never saw coming, with seemingly no way out. My characters also tend to get caught up with what’s happening in the wider world.
Which famous writers would you have around for dinner, and what would you serve?
Oscar Wilde. Kazuo Ishiguro. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Homemade ravioli, insalata mista, spinach and ricotta, and strawberry tiramisu.
[I would like to be at that dinner party! JB]
Short shorts
- Cook or wash the dishes
- Pasta or risotto
- Gnocchi or fettucine
- Chianti or Marlborough sauvignon blanc (Sorry, but I am after all Italian.)
- Coffee or hot chocolate
- Book or movie
- Novel or memoir
- Classical music or pop
- Ballet or Pilates
- Morning person or night owl
- Designer clothes or jeans & T-shirt
- Walk or ride a bike
- Meditate or sit on the beach
- Write or read (Both – for a writer one is like exhaling, the other one like inhaling.)
– You can hear Christine Leunens in conversation with Jane Bloomfield about In Amber’s Wake and what goes on behind the writing scenes in Hollywood on Sunday 13 November.
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