Jennifer Donnelly: A Gathering Light

Shortly after Jennifer Donnelly’s novel A Gathering Light was awarded the Carnegie Medal in 2004, the New Yorker made a fleeting visit to the UK for the obligatory round of interviews and book signings.

She was happy to be in London and relishing the prospect of a fortnight’s trip to the Isle of Mull after her work was concluded. Donnelly finds the Scottish landscape inspiring; she even honeymooned in the Outer Hebrides. Indeed, a sense of place is undoubtedly of paramount importance in both her life and work.

In A Gathering Light, which takes place in the early 20th century in the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York, the setting is drawn in such meticulous detail as to be almost a character in itself.

For Donnelly, a location is inextricably bound up with its history. 'I'm very sensitive to surroundings, pulling up vibes, feelings,' she says. 'I can't go anywhere, whether it's the East End, or part of New York, or Paris, without squinting my eyes and trying to see back 100 years and see the people coming and going, what they would have been dressed like, how they would have been talking, interacting. You see certain types, certain faces that you know have always been present in this place, this city, whether it be Paris or the Adirondacks.

You can just see these types coming down through the centuries and enduring, even though the clothing has changed, perhaps their occupations have changed. I think there's a certain core identity that people have that remains the same in a place. A place will shape people as much as they shape it.

Donnelly feels that writers of historical novels have a greater responsibility than other authors. "You have to create this seamless, believable past to gain your reader's trust. If you don't do that the person is going to slam the book shut and I don't blame them, so that's another whole level of work - but it's not work. I love being immersed in libraries and archives, the bowels of historical associations. It's just wonderful some of the things you come across."

Her twin interests in place and history merge in the true story of Grace Brown, a pregnant 19-year-old who was drowned in a lake by Chester Gillette, the father of her baby. Theodore Dreiser fictionalised the events in his novel An American Tragedy; reading it, Donnelly was deeply affected by Grace's plight, not least because the events took place in the Adirondacks, an area in which her family has roots, and which she knows well. Wanting to find out more about Grace, she began to research the background to the case.

'It was a hugely sensational trial. They published this little pink pamphlet - Grace Brown's love letters, 15 cents. The letters were reproduced in full. Just hearing her voice, coming to understand who this lovely young woman was, getting insight into her character ... it was always in the back of my mind that this lovely young life had been snuffed out. That she was writing these beautiful, emotional, heartfelt letters to the man who was going to murder her was truly moving and heartbreaking. But the story is what it is partly because of where it happened too. It's still remote, it's still a little bit eerie in the Adirondacks, even today.

100 years ago it was incredibly remote, not built up, just a few Great Camps along the lake. They would have been so alone in that bay where it happened. They would only have heard the loons, and the pines would have been all over ... It's the kind of beauty that is stark, a little bit eerie, a little bit frightening. You feel very insignificant in the middle of those woods.

Donnelly used Grace Brown’s murder as the springboard for the novel's main story, that of her fictional heroine, Mattie Gokey. Mattie is a bright 16-year-old torn between staying at home to marry a handsome young farmer and following her dreams of going to college in New York City and becoming a writer.

For a girl in 1906 her aspirations would have met with significant opposition, as would those of Mattie’s friend Weaver, who is black, and who inevitably would have encountered racial prejudice in his pursuit of a career in law.

The relationship between the two rings so true that Donnelly admits readers often hope Mattie and Weaver will have a future together, despite the obvious difficulties they would face. She speculates on the possibility: 'I think Mattie's quest for a college education would have been a cakewalk in comparison to what she and Weaver would have experienced as an inter-racial couple. I'm sure there were some, but I can't imagine the ugliness you would face, even in a place like New York City. The one thing about the Adirondacks, though, is that it creates such independent characters. People live very unobserved lives and they do what they want. I could definitely see an inter-racial relationship happening even though up there they would have come into conflict with people too.'

Mattie wants to be a writer in part because she does not find her world reflected in the books she reads. Her ambivalence towards authors such as Jane Austen has stirred up something of a hornet’s nest.

'I always get raked over the coals – 'why doesn't Mattie like Jane Austen? Do you not like Jane Austen?'" says Donnelly. People are ready to string me up for that. For the record, I do like Jane Austen. I think Mattie likes her too, I just think she has some frustrations. But Jane Austen is writing what she was allowed to write in her time period too. I personally have a greater liking for writers like Theodore Dreiser and the American realists. I have a gritty soul myself and I like to see a more honest approach and a grittier depiction of life. But at different times in your life, at different stages, you want different things - even different times in the week," she continues, moving on to a pet peeve: the insistence in some quarters on pigeonholing books into those deemed to be worth reading, and those – which include bestsellers and, until recently, children’s books - that aren't."

Sometimes you're tired and you want a quick, fun, thrilling little read. Other times you're more up for something profound and life-changing and moving and demanding. I think it's fine to veer back and forth between the two. People sometimes are so apologetic for reading something on the bestseller list. It's crazy.

Donnelly, herself a devotee of popular authors such as Stephen King and Barbara Taylor Bradford in addition to 'quality' fiction, is also an avid reader of children’s books. Her reading list at the moment is typically varied: 'Michael Morpurgo's Private Peaceful, Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli, I'm reading a lot of Graham Swift, Graham Greene too. I'm reading about Lance Armstrong, for some strange reason. I guess I like stubborn people who just don't give up. I think that's a good quality in a writer. I recently read Coraline and loved it. It scared the hell out of me. I'm reading a lot of picture books. I just love Beegu by Alexis Deacon. And I was just given How I Live Now (by Meg Rosoff).'

Given her eclectic reading habits, it is perhaps unsurprising that Donnelly recently wrote an article in The Guardian in praise of crossover fiction. "I love Harry Potter," she says firmly. "I'm 41 years old. I love the characters in C S Lewis. I love Philip Pullman. I wouldn't say that any of the Harry books move me as greatly as His Dark Materials, but I love Harry. He doesn't have to do the same things that Lyra is doing for me. He's different. I finished His Dark Materials in an airport and made a complete spectacle of myself, sitting there sobbing, wiping my eyes. It's one of the best things I've ever read. You get different things from different writers, and following [J K Rowling’s] nimble imagination and being immersed in the world she creates is a good time."

Donnelly believes that a good book should have a message for readers, but that it must avoid preaching at all costs. 'If you set out to say: "this is my message and you must hear it and understand it", oh God, how dull. Hopefully it's organic to the whole story. I had found that I wanted to say to a 16-year-old girl: 'Look at this and pay attention and be wary while you're still Mattie, before you become Grace.’ But having said that, I'm so against ghettoising books and stories. I think a good story well told should appeal to different ages and races and genders. I don't think it should just be: 'You're 16, this is for you.' Mattie was a 16-year-old girl so obviously you're going to try and channel what you recall from being a teenager - how I was at 16, how I think 16-year-olds are today. But I don't make a decision to write a certain way or not write a certain way.'

I don't think A Gathering Light is a quick, easy read,' she continues. 'It challenges and demands a bit from the reader. And I think that's fine. It's not one size fits all with books. Some people will like it and other people won't and that's perfectly fine with me.' This apparent lack of ego was put to the test when Donnelly took part in the Carnegie Medal's shadowing scheme, for along with the positive comments were some that any author would rather not hear. 'These kids pull no punches. One of the kids said "This is the dreariest book I've ever read,"' she recounts with good humour. 'You're like, "oh God!" You may get 30 good e-mails that week but it's that one that sticks in your mind.'

Despite her delight at the warm reception for A Gathering Light, Donnell has little time to bask in her success. She is already immersed in writing the sequel to Tea Rose, her novel for adults set in the East End of London. At the same time she is working on a new young adult novel, which takes place in Paris in the late 18th century. Although she has moved on from Mattie, Weaver and the other characters in A Gathering Light, she nevertheless admits to feeling a sense of loss.

'People always assume the author finishes with the characters, but it is the other way around. They dump you! They just go off and leave you broken-hearted and alone." So does that mean she hasn't ruled out the possibility of a sequel? 'Mattie got on that train and I haven't heard from her since,' she says, a touch ruefully. 'But if she or Weaver do decide to talk to me again I'll certainly be listening.'

Read an interview with Jennifer about Revolution