Introducing... Edward Carey

Introducing…

Edward Carey

‘Introducing…’ is our online interview series to introduce you to some of the amazing authors we’re working with and the brilliant books they have coming up!

Edward Carey is a novelist, visual artist and playwright. He is the author of several acclaimed novels, including Little, which was published in 19 countries and was longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, the RSL Ondaatje Prize, the Walter Scott Prize and the Rathbones Folio Prize, and shortlisted for the HWA Gold Crown. His latest novel is The Swallowed Man, a retelling of Pinocchio, published by Gallic Books. Born in England, Edward teaches at the University of Texas at Austin.

Welcome! To start with, could you tell us a little bit about yourself…

I’m a short Englishman living in Texas.

The Swallowed Man published 5th November. In your own words, could you give us an overview of the book?

It’s a journal of the two years that Geppetto, father of Pinocchio, spent inside the belly of an enormous sea creature and how he survived such an ordeal.

What was your inspiration for the book…

I was given a commission by the Parco di Pinocchio in Collodi, Italy to make artwork for an exhibition inspired by Carlo Collodi’s classic story. As I read and reread it, I kept wondering what on earth Geppetto would do inside the sea beast for so long. Collodi just abandons him there and tells us nothing about what must have been an extraordinary and difficult experience.

Why did you decide to explore the character of Geppetto?

Disney makes him out to be a sweet old cove but in the original book he is rather cruel and bad-tempered and even violent; he originally made the puppet as a way of making money. I wanted to explore who this man, this creator – someone who can be thought of perhaps as not so far from Victor Frankenstein – felt about his strange creation and what the act of creation says about the creator.

How did you find the writing process? Do you work to a set schedule?

If I’m working on a book I work every day for several hours until I get a draft done, otheriwse it can be more erratic. Some books come quickly, others don’t behave. I don’t have strict schedules but I do have two children and so when I have a piece of time to myself, I have to use it well.

In addition to writing the novel, you also create all the book’s distinctive illustrations. Do you have those images in mind while you’re writing, or create them after you’ve finished the book?

Bit of both. Sometimes I draw first sometimes I write but they will always go together for me now. As I wrote Geppetto’s journal, I kept thinking what art he would make to keep himself sane, and to properly understand him I made that art (busts made of hardtack, portraits of lost love on driftwood, self-portraits in squid ink, skyscapes on bone).

You’ve been doing a drawing a day during lockdown. Why were you inspired to do that?

I was writing rather a bleak book at the beginning of the pandemic and I thought I’d better leave that alone for now, but I couldn’t do nothing so I wrote on Twitter, not quite realising what a commitment it would be, that I would do a drawing a day until all this was over. I’m just over 250 at this point. I’m enjoying it, it seems the best way I know of marking time, and of escaping, of calming down, or finding new things to discover, of communicating. And I’m still very much in love with the pencil.

How do you decide on your drawing for the day? How long do they take you?

Sometimes someone will suggest something, a tardigrade for example, and I’ll take pleasure in the small commission. Sometimes world events are so striking that I feel a need to mark them. Sometimes I just draw what I miss in England, sometimes I draw what’s out the window, or writers or artists I admire. It’s a great way of getting lost for a little bit every day.

Some take an hour or more, others – for example the fly that landed on Mike Pence’s head during the vice presidential debate – barely ten minutes.

And finally, can you tell us what you’ve got on your own reading list?

I’ve recently finished Ghost Town by Jeff Young and I adore it, it’s a book I know I’ll revisit many, many times. I’m longing to read Sisters by Daisy Johnson. I have one more volume to read of the Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevson which is astonishing. But my next book to read is The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans…can’t wait!

The Swallowed Man by Edward Carey is OUT NOW through Gallic Books.