The Book of Ordinary People

For readers of Chris Cleave and Sarah Winman, the story of five strangers whose lives are about to collide...

A harried mother and grieving daughter navigates the morning commute, her mind bursting with memories pleading to be shared.

A man made entirely of well-cut suits and strictly enforced rules, swims his regular morning laps and fantasises about his self-assured promotion.

A young lawyer sits in a fluorescent-lit office, typing indecipherable jargon and dreaming of everything she didn't become. A failed news hack hides under the covers from another looming deadline, and from a past that will not relent its pursuit. A young woman seeking asylum sits tensely on an unmoving train, praying that good news waits at the other end of the line.

 

With heart and humour, Claire Varley traces the power of the stories we tell ourselves - stories that may hurt or heal, disguise or reveal - through a perfectly pitched snapshot of five strangers whose lives are about to collide.

Claire Varley's debut novel The Bit in Between was published in 2015. Her fiction and non-fiction work has appeared in many places, and she has coordinated community development projects in Australia and overseas, including remote Solomon Islands and with refugee and asylum seeker communities in Melbourne's outer north.

The Book of Ordinary People
Pan Macmillan
Author: Claire Varley
ISBN: 9781760781972
RRP: $29.99

Interview with Claire Varley

Question: What inspired the story of The Book of Ordinary People?

Claire Varley: I wanted to explore the idea of a group of people living in close geographic proximity to each other who each had a story to tell. I'm fascinated by how our lives intersect and connect, yet each of us live out these incredibly varied and unique experiences of the world.


Question: How much of your inspiration comes from real life and real people?

Claire Varley: I've worked in the community sector for the past decade, so each of the stories draws from aspects of this. I've always been inspired by the resilience people show in the face of adversity, as well as the peculiarities and quirks each of us possess. The ways we are alike and the ways we are different are striking and wonderful.

Question: Are the characters based on anyone you know?

Claire Varley: Not directly, but each character draws from a collection of people I've known in my personal and professional lives. I worked for a number of years with people seeking asylum in Melbourne's north and one of the story arcs brings together the experiences of a number of people who are still waiting in limbo for their protection applications to be processed. Another character is a Greek-Cypriot woman coming to terms with the complexity of the identity for Australia's diaspora communities, and I drew on my own Greek-Cypriot heritage for this. Fiction is a crafty creature like that - no one is anyone, but everyone is bits of someone!


Question: Which character did you like writing of the most and why?

Claire Varley: Writing this book felt like plucking a different Derwent from the box every time I sat down to write. Because the characters are so different, each came with their own process of being brought to life. Each had their own songs I listened to in order to get into their mindsets and each involved a different research journey. This included a research trip to Iran, another into Turkey and many many cups of coffee with friends, family and colleagues asking questions until I ran out of steam (or coffee). There is one particular scene involving the character DB and a children's party that goes awry that came to me quite suddenly and that felt like stumbling upon a key piece of the puzzle. It was a joy to write and I still delight in reading it, which is an incredibly non-humble thing for a writer to say, but oh well…


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

Claire Varley:   We are living in a time where there is just so much to grapple with politically and socially, and where there are also real opportunities to create positive lasting change. Our personal lives are so completely linked to the political, so I wanted to take a collection of individual stories about ordinary people that bring to life how these issues affect people in very real and consuming ways. There is often such a macro focus on issues like immigration, family violence, and other social policy that we often forget that at the heart of all these things are real people whose lives are inextricably tied to the policies and rhetoric of our politicians, the media and society. And each of these people are complex and resilient, and deserve to have their stories told.


Interview by Brooke Hunter

 

The Book of Ordinary People
Pan Macmillan
Author: Claire Varley
ISBN: 9781760781972

RRP: $29.99