ELEANOR LIMPRECHT
After her meticulously researched work of historical fiction, the author is now heading in a new direction
How much research was involved before you wrote The Coast?
I began researching The Coast in 2017 after finishing my third novel, The Passengers. I spent four years researching what was called leprosy and is now known as Hansen’s disease – interspersing periods of research with periods of writing.
Is there a book that made you love writing?
A book which made me feel like it was possible to write was Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. I read it as an undergraduate and it gave me permission to write things like messy first drafts and to write what I was interested in rather than what I thought I should write.
What’s the best book you’ve read?
I love books which don’t always follow a logical timeline and which make me understand the past in new ways. This is why I loved Beloved and it made a huge impact on me the first and subsequent times I read it.
A book that had a pivotal impact on your life?
All of the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder made me fall in love with books. I read those stories so many times I lived them. They were my first completely immersive reading experience.
The book you couldn’t finish?
Lots of books – I don’t finish books unless I am really enjoying them.
A book you wish you had read but haven’t got to?
I recently read Bernadette Brennan’s wonderful biography of Gillian Mears Leaping Into Waterfalls and it made me want to read more of Mears’ books. I absolutely loved Foal’s Bread. So I’m planning to read The Grass Sister.
The book you are most proud to have written?
This book, The Coast, because I had to learn so much to write it.
How do you read books?
I always prefer paper but if I can’t get a paper copy I have an e-reader. Audio can be great if I have undisturbed chunks of time to focus but I’m very picky about voices and narration.
Your favourite place to read?
In my garden with my dog and the sun on my back, warming me.
What books are on your bedside table?
Emily Brugman’s The Islands – a beautifully written story of Finnish migrants fishing the Abrolhos Islands off WA. My friend Poppy Gee’s manuscript for her latest novel – we swap work and I am so lucky to get to read her drafts; Lauren Chater’s The Winter Dress – I love the interesting worlds Lauren writes about.
What are you writing next?
I’m working on something which is more memoir, and I would like to think it is funny (though I might be wrong). It’s about being a very unusual child. And it’s about meeting an Australian in Italy and moving to Sydney.