Part two of our interview with Kate Hamer begins with a discussion of Carmel, the 'Girl' in The Girl in the Red Coat. ----more----Having avoided the subject of her special power - spoilers alert etc - we move onto:
- love and its distortions
- 'I am not really interested in monsters': Hamer on her villains
- religion in the novel
- Hamer and the Gothic
- Beth, Carmel and the use of tenses
- parents making maps of their children's lives
- time in the novel
- stasis and waiting: the challenge of writing Beth's narrative
- 'For both of them it was like a journal of survival'
- how parenthood changes you
- parents and their parents
- is it an optimistic novel?
- how to end the novel
- Hamer's own childhood in Wales
- religion, mysticism and storytelling
- formative reading: 'Anything deeply, deeply tragic'
- influences and Hamer's current literary crush: Nicole Krauss
- why Hamer took so long to write her debut!
- life as a novelist and future plans
