:00:00. > :00:00.breakthrough. Now on BBC News it's time for Meet
:00:00. > :00:11.the Author with Nick Higham. Four years ago, Emma Donoghue
:00:12. > :00:16.published a novel about the world seen through the eyes of a
:00:17. > :00:23.five`year`old can find to a single room with its mother. Now she has
:00:24. > :00:28.written a dense and atmospheric historical novel and murder mystery
:00:29. > :00:52.set in France and `` set in San Francisco. The unsolved murder of a
:00:53. > :01:04.young Frenchwoman. Who was Jenny Wester Mark `` Jenny? She was a
:01:05. > :01:08.professional frog catcher. She wore trousers and for wearing trousers
:01:09. > :01:14.she was the approximately once a month. She was a playful, fun loving
:01:15. > :01:23.Becker of bar fights and she got shot dead through a window. She is
:01:24. > :01:27.slightly more than someone who wears trousers for work. She is determined
:01:28. > :01:35.cross`dresser and one of the things that appeals to hide is that it went
:01:36. > :01:40.people up. She is about the only person in the city that they used
:01:41. > :01:51.this law against. I'm time she would say, do you want me to go naked? She
:01:52. > :01:57.was quite a celebrity. What drew you to her as a subject? She seemed to
:01:58. > :02:01.me the perfect murder victim. She lived as if she knew she was going
:02:02. > :02:07.to die at 27. She made very odd decisions. She was a Shepherd and
:02:08. > :02:12.moved on to becoming a frog catcher and she befriended other people of
:02:13. > :02:23.French origin in San Francis, including prostitutes and pimps ``
:02:24. > :02:26.San Francisco. She cross`dressed in a playful way, not trying to
:02:27. > :02:34.disguise herself, but in a maverick way. Some of your central characters
:02:35. > :02:48.are those prostitutes and pimps, one is an exotic dancer, there is for
:02:49. > :02:53.him and lover `` her pimp. How important is the research? How much
:02:54. > :02:58.of the attraction of this is being able to do this research? It is
:02:59. > :03:03.crucial to do it and to throw it away. It is almost homoeopathic. You
:03:04. > :03:13.have to absorb yourself in so many so horses, `` in so many sources and
:03:14. > :03:18.get rid of anything that you do not feel his place on your page. You do
:03:19. > :03:23.not have to give paragraphs of explanation. You have to think,
:03:24. > :03:33.would my character care? You have the character who says news is a
:03:34. > :03:40.crazy equal to fact and fiction. That is a description of the book.
:03:41. > :03:47.It is, but it has been carefully pieced together. I care desperately
:03:48. > :03:54.about who pulled the trigger and I love getting to moments where the
:03:55. > :04:00.facts run out and I have to invent. By inventing, what can you bring to
:04:01. > :04:05.it? I greater truth of the spirit, meaning that I do not have the
:04:06. > :04:09.letter of what happened but I can communicate what it felt like to be
:04:10. > :04:12.there. I think I can bring the issues of the day lives in a way
:04:13. > :04:19.that is very difficult to do with a has any. There was a smallpox
:04:20. > :04:25.epidemic, a heatwave, you have a city that has grown out of nothing,
:04:26. > :04:31.one of the devices you use to try to capture the character of the time is
:04:32. > :04:36.to reference popular songs, all through the book there are snatches
:04:37. > :05:20.of popular songs, lullabies, musical songs.
:05:21. > :05:25.MUSIC The drawback for me of that is that you get to read the words but
:05:26. > :05:33.you do not hear the tunes on the page. I've found it a bit
:05:34. > :05:37.frustrating. I know what you mean. There is no music but the words lead
:05:38. > :05:44.you towards those songs. By the audio book. That contains a lot of
:05:45. > :05:50.the songs. I have provided a playlist. Books often lead you off
:05:51. > :05:54.in other directions, supplementary information or media, so that is one
:05:55. > :06:00.of the ways in which this book will take readers on a journey that goes
:06:01. > :06:04.beyond the page. Was that part of your thinking, to take it into other
:06:05. > :06:13.media, there could be something online? Yes. On my website I provide
:06:14. > :06:19.an exhaustive bibliography of the sources try to work out what really
:06:20. > :06:22.happened on that night. I think readers who have interests in more
:06:23. > :06:30.music or more fact will follow the book in other directions. It has to
:06:31. > :06:33.work on the page. I find the lyrics of the folk music tradition so
:06:34. > :06:39.evocative. I love how do they were passed on and changed with every
:06:40. > :06:46.repetition. I think there is a lot of suggestive atmosphere to the
:06:47. > :06:53.lyrics. I agree they are not stop. This is a return to many of the
:06:54. > :06:58.books you use to write. Before you produce this extraordinary book four
:06:59. > :07:02.years ago which was acclaimed, and it is very different, it has a basis
:07:03. > :07:14.in fact, but it is not like most of your fiction. Was it difficult after
:07:15. > :07:22.the success of that to continue? No, I could not care lies. My publishers
:07:23. > :07:26.used to ask for more historical. You can never tell what is going to
:07:27. > :07:31.sell. I had planned this about 15 years ago and I was waiting for time
:07:32. > :07:36.to write it. I write for my own pleasure. I will always excite
:07:37. > :07:41.between the contemporary and their historical because I do not be a
:07:42. > :07:46.difference between them. It would be a shame to stick to one area the
:07:47. > :07:53.same as it would be ashamed to to your own country. `` E shame.