“I knew that I was writing for an American audience and that if I sold foreign rights, they would retranslate the book to make it make sense to that language. But one thing that was really important to me was not to italicize any of the words in the languages that were in the stories, because I feel like those foreign words felt just as important and integral to the story as everything else, so I wanted it all to just exist as its own thing.” IfsFeelsWritingImportantBookStoriesWantedLanguageFeltAudienceRightsOne ThingMake Sense Author:Molly Antopol
“It's funny - for a long time, I didn't know I was writing a book. I was writing stories. For me, each story took so long and took so much out of me, that when I finished it, I was like, Oh my gosh, I feel like I've poured everything from myself into this, and then I'd get depressed for a week. And then once I was ready to write a new story, I would want to write about something that was completely different, so I would search for a totally different character with a different set of circumstances.” KnowsWantFeelsWritingLongBookDifferentCharacterStoriesWeekReadyCircumstancesLong TimeFinishedWriting A BookDifferent CharactersWriting StoriesOh My Gosh Author:Molly Antopol
“With the Holocaust - I wonder if a lot of Jewish writers of my generation have felt this way - it feels really intimidating to approach it. I feel like so many writers who have either lived through it firsthand or were part of that generation where they were closer to the people who were in it have written so beautifully about it, so there's no lack of great books about it” PeopleIfsWayFeelsBookFeltWonderWrittenGenerationsApproachHolocaustIntimidatingMy GenerationGreat Book Author:Molly Antopol
“The Israel stories were really hard for me to write, because I think that my book is very much about politics, but it isn't political. It really was important for me to not have a political agenda at all, because I have a hard time stomaching any political fiction that feels message-y.” ThinkingFeelsWritingImportantBookHardStoriesPoliticalFictionMessagesIsraelHard TimesAgendasPolitical Agendas Author:Molly Antopol
“It was tricky [to write about Israelis], because everyone has an opinion about the Arab - Israeli conflict, and when I first started writing these stories, I was working for an Arab - Israeli human rights group. It was during the Second Intifada. It was this totally violent and intense time, and I think there's a part of me where I don't know how to write about that situation without getting my politics out of my messages, and that's something that was important for me not to do in this book.” ThinkingKnowsWritingFirstsHumansImportantBookStoriesSituationOpinionKnow HowRightsGroupsConflictMessagesHuman RightsViolentIntenseIsraeliTrickyArab Israeli Conflict Author:Molly Antopol
