:00:00. > :00:00.Net migration to the UK has fallen below 300,000
:00:00. > :00:09.It's still above the Government's target figure.
:00:10. > :00:14.Sara Baume has written a novel that deals with one of greatest
:00:15. > :00:15.contemporary problems, the feeling of loss,
:00:16. > :00:17.maybe hopelessness, among young people who think
:00:18. > :00:19.that the opportunity they'd been brought up
:00:20. > :00:25.Her book A Line Made By Walking uses artwork as a structure.
:00:26. > :00:28.She was an art student herself in Ireland and the story is told
:00:29. > :00:30.by the narrator Frankie, who struggles with mental illness
:00:31. > :00:34.It's a dark story but a compelling one.
:00:35. > :00:55.The theme of this story is a problem, I suppose, that's very,
:00:56. > :00:58.very familiar and troubling to many people at this moment.
:00:59. > :01:08.I think we live in an age when people grow up much slower.
:01:09. > :01:15.It's funny, I think about this quite often now, my parents were married
:01:16. > :01:20.But it's totally acceptable that in your early 30s you're still...
:01:21. > :01:23.I'm still doing exactly what I did as a child only,
:01:24. > :01:25.I'd like to think, a slightly more sophisticated version.
:01:26. > :01:27.I've had some wonderful responses from parents.
:01:28. > :01:35.Saying that they're going to give this book to their kids,
:01:36. > :01:44.I suppose only to know that you're not the only person
:01:45. > :01:47.I think it's something I touch on in the book
:01:48. > :01:59.without passing any judgment, Frankie, the narrator,
:02:00. > :02:02.feels very lost and disilussioned in a quite normal way
:02:03. > :02:05.because society is set up to make us feel our lives are incomplete
:02:06. > :02:08.To what extent is there an autobiographical element?
:02:09. > :02:11.It started actually with a nonfiction essay that I wrote
:02:12. > :02:14.when I was in college and it was structured
:02:15. > :02:17.around photographs of dead animals that I was taking,
:02:18. > :02:20.the idea that this character is stranded in the Irish
:02:21. > :02:22.countryside, feels very lost and alone and feels as though
:02:23. > :02:25.everything is dying and nature becomes a kind of metaphor for that.
:02:26. > :02:30.It's like the way when you're pregnant, not that I've ever been
:02:31. > :02:37.pregnant, but you suddenly see people who are pregnant,
:02:38. > :02:41.She keeps finding these dead animals because she notices them, I suppose.
:02:42. > :02:45.That builds the landscape around her.
:02:46. > :02:48.You were an art student and the visual arts are very
:02:49. > :02:51.important to you, you see the world in a sense through
:02:52. > :02:54.It's interesting that you use artwork as a
:02:55. > :03:09.It did because I suppose it came out of the character's own mind.
:03:10. > :03:12.She's a former art student who is struggling to be an artist
:03:13. > :03:16.and she is concerned that now that she's finished formal education
:03:17. > :03:19.she won't learn anything any more and so she's getting herself
:03:20. > :03:23.on the artworks that she knows and at the same time trying to find
:03:24. > :03:26.meaning for her life in the only way she knows how, through
:03:27. > :03:31.It's a strange idea, really, isn't it, that learning stops
:03:32. > :03:33.when formal education ends because it should
:03:34. > :03:36.actually be the other way round and we should all know that
:03:37. > :03:38.and understand it and look forward to it.
:03:39. > :03:54.Yeah, that's most jobs, they result in an ending of that. I am very
:03:55. > :04:01.covered by the fact that I graduated during the Irish recession. I think
:04:02. > :04:08.it's still a problem in Irish society, we are all qualified but
:04:09. > :04:13.there are so few opportunities. You end up in dead-end jobs and learning
:04:14. > :04:18.in. Frankie has all kinds of problems and you touch on something
:04:19. > :04:23.that is on many people's mind, the prevalence of mental illness of
:04:24. > :04:31.various kinds, for which there is no immediate help, not much prospect of
:04:32. > :04:39.escape. More aware of that now RV? I suppose we are. We grow up slower
:04:40. > :04:42.and we are more lost and disillusioned. There is no
:04:43. > :04:51.medication for that, which is the easiest way. I don't stand in
:04:52. > :04:55.judgment of the people that take mitigation. Frankie is very
:04:56. > :04:59.resistant. The book draws to a certain conclusion and it's for the
:05:00. > :05:09.reader to decide whether she was right to be resistant or not. What
:05:10. > :05:14.do you think of Frankie? Rewriting this book recently, it grew from the
:05:15. > :05:19.essay that I wrote when I was 2526, rewriting it recently there were so
:05:20. > :05:24.many things that restricted me about her and I was tempted to cut because
:05:25. > :05:29.I don't think like that any more. Then I realised that this is my
:05:30. > :05:35.25-year-old self. You have to V herself. Precisely. She needs to
:05:36. > :05:43.make our own mistakes without you intervening. Yes, she needs for
:05:44. > :05:48.people to decide for herself. What did it tell you about your
:05:49. > :05:52.25-year-old self, rewriting this? I was very self absorbed and I think
:05:53. > :05:59.that is a sign of the times. Different perspective. The big deal
:06:00. > :06:03.is a lot with the death of the grandmother. At the time, I was
:06:04. > :06:11.interested in tackling that. I am still interested in that. We don't
:06:12. > :06:17.use much about grandparents. Since the book, in the last year, my
:06:18. > :06:20.father died. That was a huge dissertation. They said that you do
:06:21. > :06:28.not fully grasp and tell you one of your parents dies. I made a huge
:06:29. > :06:32.shift in that time period myself. Frankie seems very small and the
:06:33. > :06:40.eagle is very important. I think you need a bit of ego if you're going to
:06:41. > :06:46.push or the arts. Do you think that people are more alone and they have
:06:47. > :06:49.to be self reliant if they will make their way? Yes, I sense a writer
:06:50. > :06:58.both lonely character. That is what interests me and it is an endless
:06:59. > :07:04.subject. -- yes, I tend to write about lonely characters. This is a
:07:05. > :07:07.book about the loneliness of failure or the loneliness of having received
:07:08. > :07:11.that you have failed when really your life has hardly begun. -- of
:07:12. > :07:16.having received that you have failed. Would you like people to
:07:17. > :07:26.feel more optimistic about life when they finished the book? I hope that
:07:27. > :07:31.the artworks will... Love them. Well, let them in a way or get
:07:32. > :07:37.people to look at smaller details more closely. If that were you find
:07:38. > :07:42.yourselves? It is. Nature is a big thing in both books. This is not a
:07:43. > :07:48.new wave, it is the mindfulness thing, slowing down and looking at
:07:49. > :07:51.things more closely. There is a painter that said that he has a
:07:52. > :08:00.quite mind and that you work hard for it. Then it's society, we don't
:08:01. > :08:10.have a quite mind. Frankie's mind is certain -- is certainly not quite.
:08:11. > :08:18.You don't think about that when you're working. Let's erect for a
:08:19. > :08:27.quite mind. Yes. Voter, thank you very much.
:08:28. > :08:32.Well, after a very stormy day today. Tomorrow is looking a lot calmer. We
:08:33. > :08:34.can