Guilt

Guilt

The hotly anticipated third novel from critically acclaimed author and Hollywood actor, Matt Nable. Guilt starts off with a group of friends getting ready for an eighteenth birthday party. Life is exciting and the world is at their feet.

Jump forward twenty years and they are all struggling with where they are at. Tommy has just got out of prison. Lani, the girl he loved at school, is unhappily married to a cheating husband. Another friend Julia has only just moved out of home to live with her fiancé. And Paul – the high school hero of whom everyone expected great things – is living a totally ordinary life of marriage, mortgage, kids. Where did it all go wrong?

Something happened at that party that changed their lives forever. This agonising novel examines the layers of loyalty and jealousy, the headiness of youth and the inescapable taste of guilt.

Matt Nable is a writer and actor. He stars in The Killer Elite alongside Clive Owen and Robert De Niro, and 33 Postcards alongside Guy Pearce. He wrote and starred in The Final Winter (2007), an independent Australian film that has since been released internationally, and appears in the upcoming series of East West 101 (SBS Television). Two of his screenplays are currently in development. With his wife and three children, Matt divides his time between Sydney and Los Angeles. He is the author of the novels We Don't Live Here Anymore (2009) and Faces in the Clouds (2011).

Guilt
Pegunin Books Australia
Author: Matt Nable
ISBN: 9780670076284
RRP: $32.99

Interview with Matt Nable

Question: What inspired you to write Guilt?

Matt Nable: I wanted to write about the time of my life that I often think back to. The last years of school, where such strong bonds are made between friends, and the excitement of what's ahead is overwhelming. That was the first time in my life I can recall feeling a euphoria. And then in my last year of school, there was an incident, and I wondered, and still do, how that circumstance changed the lives of those involved.


Question: There are several issues raised in this book. Was this deliberate or did the story evolve this way?

Matt Nable: No nothing I've written has ever been intentional as to raise an issue. What's there is there I guess. And people who read any fiction correl parts of it so as to see themselves, or people they know, or think they know. It can often give them comfort, or just as easily turn them off.

Question: How do you manage a busy acting career with your writing?

Matt Nable: It's just the way it is I guess. I'm lucky to be busy as an actor, very lucky. Writing isn't a chore for me, and so in the downtime you have on set, or days off in a prodcuction, then I'll write. It's very grounding for me, not only do I really love it, it provides a real identity for me while I'm pretending to be someone else. And I always have multiple projects I'm working on. So to get them finished, I have to keep writing.


Question: What's it like being on set for Arrow?

Matt Nable: Arrow has been great fun. I haven't done anything so 'fantastical' before. I've often played real people, or damaged characters...this is such a departure. My character is 125 years old, regal, badass, and great fun to play. The cast are great, the crew as well. I've had a ball.


Question: What's next, for you?

Matt Nable: I have a job in New Orleans called Quarry which is a series for HBO/Cinemax. But I'd love to do something back home at some point this year. I have a film I've written that's greenlit with producer Jamie Hilton who last did The Little Death, though I'm not certain that'll happen until early next year. Beyond that I've started another novel, which I hope to finish next year. And spend as much time with my family!


Interview by Brooke Hunter