Interview

Claire Messud discusses what inspired her to write The Emperor's Children and why she chooses to write about people who are "interesting" rather than nice.

Q: In The Emperor's Children, the introduction of a few outsiders into the world of the main characters drastically alters the lives of everyone. What were their lives like before the appearance of Bootie and Ludovic Seeley on the scene?

Well, Marina had been living at home for the better part of a year, trying to get her book finished; and Julius and Danielle were living pretty much as they had done for some time, each in their apartment. But the three of them spent a lot of time together – more time than they do once the book is underway -- in the way very close, old friends do when they are single and childless.

Q: The first chapter is called "Our Chef is Very Famous in London", which gets to the heart of things that a reputation one place may not carry to another. What made you decide to start the book with that?

Danielle – like Marina and Julius also, albeit in slightly different ways – is very much a New Yorker. Her whole sense of the world, post-college, has been focused entirely on New York. I wanted to begin the novel in a rare moment, for her, in which she has some perspective on her own life, some sense of its provincialism. All our lives are provincial, no ...