0:00:00 > 0:00:05even tougher exams.
0:00:05 > 0:00:08Now it's time for Meet the Author, with Rebecca Jones.
0:00:08 > 0:00:11Eowyn Ivey had the kind of success with her first novel that most
0:00:11 > 0:00:12authors can only dream about.
0:00:12 > 0:00:14'The Snow Child' became a global bestseller and was shortlisted
0:00:14 > 0:00:17for the Pulitzer Prize.
0:00:17 > 0:00:20Now, four years later, she's back with her highly
0:00:20 > 0:00:23anticipated second novel, 'To the Bright Edge of the World'.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26Once again, it's set in Alaska - where Eowyn herself
0:00:26 > 0:00:29was raised and still lives - and it tells the story
0:00:29 > 0:00:33of a late-19th-century expedition into that beautiful,
0:00:33 > 0:00:43but forbidding, wilderness.
0:00:48 > 0:00:52Eowyn Ivey, before we start talking about the book,
0:00:52 > 0:00:54I must just ask you about your name.
0:00:54 > 0:00:56It's so unusual, where does it come from?
0:00:56 > 0:00:59Well, in truth, my mom named me after a character from the Lord
0:00:59 > 0:01:06of the Rings, Tolkien's books.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09And, of course, this is long before the movies had come out.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12So when I was a child, no-one ever recognised it.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15Now people will say, isn't that from the Lord of the Rings?
0:01:15 > 0:01:17Do you mind being named after a character from
0:01:17 > 0:01:18the Lord of the Rings?
0:01:18 > 0:01:19I actually really like it.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22When I was younger sometimes, I wanted a more normal name.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25You know, it drew a little more attention to myself that
0:01:25 > 0:01:26I was uncomfortable with.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29But now I'm really actually glad to have the name, I enjoy it.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31Now, this book follows the international acclaim that
0:01:31 > 0:01:33you received for 'The Snow Child', which brought you on to
0:01:33 > 0:01:35the inevitable challenges of the second novel.
0:01:35 > 0:01:36How difficult has it been?
0:01:36 > 0:01:39You know, it was actually really exciting to write a new book
0:01:39 > 0:01:42and try to kind of stretch my wings as a writer a little bit,
0:01:42 > 0:01:44compared to 'The Snow Child'.
0:01:44 > 0:01:46It is hard when I let myself think about it,
0:01:46 > 0:01:48because I didn't want to disappoint 'Snow Child' fans.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51I wanted to give them another story that they would enjoy,
0:01:51 > 0:01:53but I also wanted to try some different things.
0:01:53 > 0:01:56But once I just sat down to write, you kind of forget about all that
0:01:56 > 0:01:58and you're just involved with the stories.
0:01:58 > 0:02:00So, 'To the Bright Edge of the World' is inspired
0:02:00 > 0:02:03by a true-life story - a real-life expedition into Alaska
0:02:03 > 0:02:06in the late-19th century by a man called Henry T Allen.
0:02:06 > 0:02:08So tell us a little bit more about him and what he
0:02:08 > 0:02:09was trying to achieve.
0:02:09 > 0:02:10Sure.
0:02:10 > 0:02:13It was actually when I was working at the Little Bookstore,
0:02:13 > 0:02:15in Alaska, that I came across the original
0:02:15 > 0:02:16expedition reports.
0:02:16 > 0:02:18It was 1885, this very young lieutenant led an expedition
0:02:18 > 0:02:20into the heart of Alaska.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23And it's crazy to think at that time, which is relatively recent
0:02:23 > 0:02:24in history, white Americans had never explored the
0:02:24 > 0:02:25interior of Alaska.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28So it was a very gruelling journey up an icy river, encountering
0:02:28 > 0:02:30indigenous people who had never met white people before.
0:02:30 > 0:02:36It was a great adventure really.
0:02:36 > 0:02:39And your fictional hero is called Allen, but that's his first name.
0:02:39 > 0:02:40So Allen Forrester.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42You've borrowed the surname of the real-life character.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45How much of your hero is that real-life character,
0:02:45 > 0:02:48or have you reimagined him?
0:02:48 > 0:02:51Really, the character is entirely fictionalised.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54I wanted that freedom to just make the characters who they were
0:02:54 > 0:02:56going to be on their own.
0:02:56 > 0:03:00But I wanted to give a little homage to the lieutenant who had
0:03:00 > 0:03:03actually done the expedition because I relied a tremendous amount
0:03:03 > 0:03:04on his reports and his...
0:03:04 > 0:03:07You know, there's a member of his expedition that kept diaries
0:03:07 > 0:03:09and journals, and I was able to read those.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11So the research all came from there and I owe
0:03:11 > 0:03:12a great debt to that.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15But the characters themselves, you know, my character is a colonel.
0:03:15 > 0:03:17He's much older, has a different background,
0:03:17 > 0:03:19he's very much his own person.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22And you mentioned the diaries that Henry T Allen left behind.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26Are they the first written accounts of native Alaskan people?
0:03:26 > 0:03:28Not the first written accounts of native Alaskans in general
0:03:28 > 0:03:31because the coast of Alaska had been explored extensively by Russians
0:03:31 > 0:03:33and by white Americans.
0:03:33 > 0:03:36But going into the interior, certain parts of it,
0:03:36 > 0:03:39especially along what's called the Copper River, they really
0:03:39 > 0:03:42are the first documented reports from there.
0:03:42 > 0:03:46It seemed to me that one of the central themes of the novel
0:03:46 > 0:03:49is change and what impact that this expedition is going to have
0:03:49 > 0:03:53on the native people, and I wondered where you wanted
0:03:53 > 0:03:56the reader's sympathies to lie?
0:03:56 > 0:03:59Do you want them to lie with the explorers or with the natives?
0:03:59 > 0:04:02Well, you know, it's interesting because I think as a writer,
0:04:02 > 0:04:03I'm not really interested in offering an answer.
0:04:03 > 0:04:05I'm more interested in asking the questions.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07So I really want to present both sides.
0:04:07 > 0:04:10I think in many ways, my colonel is a likeable man,
0:04:10 > 0:04:12very honourable in a lot of ways, but what he's bringing
0:04:12 > 0:04:15about is a tremendous amount of change for the people
0:04:15 > 0:04:16who live there.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18So I just wanted to raise those questions.
0:04:18 > 0:04:20And really, I was interested in telling an adventure story,
0:04:20 > 0:04:23but I felt like I had a certain responsibility to say -
0:04:23 > 0:04:24what comes with this, then?
0:04:24 > 0:04:27What are the long-term effects of exploration and colonialism?
0:04:27 > 0:04:30So I wanted to at least ask those questions, I guess.
0:04:30 > 0:04:32And there's a strong supernatural element to the novel as well.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35Tell us a little bit more about that.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38Sure, I kind of discovered as a fiction writer that what I love
0:04:38 > 0:04:40to do is have fun with reality.
0:04:40 > 0:04:42So I love the Alaskan landscape, setting stories there.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46But with both 'The Snow Child' and this new book, I wanted to leave
0:04:46 > 0:04:48room for the imagination and for the fantastical.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51So there might be a couple of lake monsters thrown
0:04:51 > 0:04:52in there along the way!
0:04:52 > 0:04:55Yes.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58The story is also about the young wife that the colonel leaves behind,
0:04:58 > 0:05:00Sophie.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03How much of her story is based on real-life events as well,
0:05:03 > 0:05:05or is she totally imagined?
0:05:05 > 0:05:07Well, in ways, she's totally imagined, but very informed
0:05:07 > 0:05:09by the time.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12So I did a lot of research about the lives of explorers, polar explorers.
0:05:12 > 0:05:16And because she has an interest in naturalism and taking
0:05:16 > 0:05:19photographs, I did a lot of research about women who were doing that
0:05:19 > 0:05:20at the time.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22So there were women who were exploring with photography
0:05:22 > 0:05:25and taking pictures of their families, but also in the nature,
0:05:25 > 0:05:28and I was interested in letting a woman kind of explore that
0:05:28 > 0:05:30new territory at the time.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33Now, you've structured the novel as a series of diary entries.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35There are maps, drawings, photographs, letters.
0:05:35 > 0:05:39Why did you decide to write it in that way?
0:05:39 > 0:05:42You know, I think in part, it kind of grew organically for me
0:05:42 > 0:05:45just out of the research process because as I was doing research,
0:05:45 > 0:05:46that's what I was discovering.
0:05:46 > 0:05:49I was coming across these amazing sketches and reports
0:05:49 > 0:05:51and military documents.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54And it kind of is a fun feeling to be discovering and I wanted
0:05:54 > 0:05:56the reader to have that feeling.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59So I hope that every turn of the page, you're not really sure
0:05:59 > 0:06:01what you're going to find on the next page, and then
0:06:01 > 0:06:03the pieces kind of come together.
0:06:03 > 0:06:04But it was challenging.
0:06:04 > 0:06:06At times, I wondered, can I tell the story this way?
0:06:06 > 0:06:09You have to struggle with suspense and plot when everything's
0:06:09 > 0:06:11in first person like that.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15Am I right, there's one photograph in there of your husband on a raft?
0:06:15 > 0:06:16There is!
0:06:16 > 0:06:17How did that come about?
0:06:17 > 0:06:18There is.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20So he and I did a raft trip together.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23I was given a grant for research to float the Copper River,
0:06:23 > 0:06:25which is the river that sort of inspired my fictional
0:06:25 > 0:06:26Wolverine River.
0:06:26 > 0:06:29So we spent about a week floating about 100 miles
0:06:29 > 0:06:32on a little inflatable raft, the two of us, and I took a tonne
0:06:32 > 0:06:33of photographs along the way.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36And so as a part of the story, there's a brochure,
0:06:36 > 0:06:38a fictional brochure, about coming to raft in Alaska.
0:06:38 > 0:06:41And you're absolutely right, that's a picture of my husband!
0:06:41 > 0:06:43How much do you think Colonel Allen Forrester
0:06:43 > 0:06:43would recognise Alaska today?
0:06:43 > 0:06:46Well, you know, it's funny because in parts - for example,
0:06:46 > 0:06:49along the Copper River - there's parts that probably look
0:06:49 > 0:06:51very much like it did when he was there.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53But I think like every place, change and growth happens and that
0:06:53 > 0:06:55brings in ways great opportunities and economic stimulus,
0:06:55 > 0:06:58but it does come at a cost sometimes.
0:06:58 > 0:07:01So every place, I think, struggles with growth and change,
0:07:01 > 0:07:04and how to do that the best way for the people who live there.
0:07:04 > 0:07:07You live there, what is life like?
0:07:07 > 0:07:10Well, I grew up there, so I'm probably a little biased!
0:07:10 > 0:07:12But my husband and I very much love it.
0:07:12 > 0:07:14Our lives haven't changed that much.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18Even though I get to come and tour in the UK and do different things,
0:07:18 > 0:07:21my day-to-day life at our home is very much as it always has been.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23And we've got chickens and a garden, and, um...
0:07:23 > 0:07:25Is it a wonderful place to write?
0:07:25 > 0:07:28Because from, I suppose, my point of view, it would feel
0:07:28 > 0:07:29like a place that's free from distraction.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31Or is the view actually a total distraction?
0:07:31 > 0:07:32I don't know!
0:07:32 > 0:07:36Well, I do have a great view from my window and my office,
0:07:36 > 0:07:37which is a little dangerous.
0:07:37 > 0:07:38But, no, I do think...
0:07:38 > 0:07:39Especially in the winter time.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43We have a lot of dark in the winter, so I think that's where a lot
0:07:43 > 0:07:45of creativity comes from from Alaskans, because you've
0:07:45 > 0:07:46got this time that's very quiet.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49So I do a lot of reading and writing in the winter.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52And in the summer, it's a different kind of manic pace.
0:07:52 > 0:07:54Everyone's trying to get everything done while the daylight's burning
0:07:54 > 0:07:58and you've got all this time to go fishing and to do your garden
0:07:58 > 0:07:59and things like that.
0:07:59 > 0:08:01And what about the next book, will it be set in Alaska?
0:08:01 > 0:08:04You know, I can't really, at this point, imagine about writing
0:08:04 > 0:08:06anyplace else because this is what I know.
0:08:06 > 0:08:09And also, I feel like I'm interested in sort of some of the conflicting
0:08:09 > 0:08:10ideas about Alaska.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13I love it, but there's also hard things about it, so I'm
0:08:13 > 0:08:15kind of interested in exploring that as a writer.
0:08:15 > 0:08:17So for now, I think that's my territory.
0:08:17 > 0:08:18OK.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21Eowyn Ivey, it's been great to talk to you.
0:08:21 > 0:08:22Thanks so much.
0:08:22 > 0:08:26Thank you so much for having me.