AUTHOR INTERVIEW

Stranded by Sarah Goodwin is an unnerving tale of isolation and abandonment. By Nora McElhone

Growing up, Sarah Goodwin was lucky enough to have parents who loved books and were keen to pass that passion on to their daughter. “They’d take me to the library on the bus even though it was over an hour away,” she says, “My dad also loves procedural crime and thriller films so I get a lot of inspiration from things we’ve watched together.

“They never policed what was and wasn’t appropriate, except weirdly, for Power Rangers, which was deemed ‘too violent’. But I did get exposed to a lot of different plots and styles of writing which I think has helped me develop my own style.”

Set on an island, Stranded deals with a group of people who are challenged to live alone in the remote location for a year for a reality TV show. Events take a turn when it becomes clear the eight are stranded.

“The island itself is entirely fictional,” says Sarah, “but I based it on some of the places I’ve been in England. As a family we went camping a lot because it was affordable. We’d go to living history museums, see people making roundhouses and learn about whittling and pottery. I’ve been down old mines in the dark and damp, which very much inspired the cave in the novel.”

The winterscapes were inspired by her own experience of an uncomfortable school trip to Norfolk: “We went in January to survey the beaches and visit a wildlife preserve. I’d never seen snow on a beach before. It was freezing cold and none of my friends went, so it was just me and a group of people I didn’t know or get on with very well.

“The coastline was so bleak and empty, it was like being at the end of the world, but in a peaceful way. The island is very like that; harsh and beautiful at the same time.”

Goodwin clearly enjoyed plotting her characters’ navigation of their situation: “I enjoy pushing people when I write – just letting them have it and see how they survive. Which sounds quite sadistic really!

“Letting the characters bring out the worst in each other and devolve was fun. I don’t really plan before I write, so it’s like reading a story that’s being written by someone else as it happens. I was waiting to see what they’d do next and some of it was quite shocking.”

The development of the characters and how they change (or can’t change) is fascinating: “I think at the end of the novel, they aren’t really different people, but more distilled versions of what they already were.”

Goodwin points out “part of civilisation is reining in your behaviour because it has consequences. But when they’re abandoned, they let go of those reins completely because they don’t think any consequences are coming. Or, if they are, they aren’t as important as surviving.”

She is also keenly aware of the impact that such television shows and “reality” experiences can have on their contestants. “If the show had ended on time, they could have probably hidden or rationalised away those parts of themselves before they became too exposed. You see in those ‘after shows’ people trying to manipulate the narrative and gaslight the people they wronged. But that’s not the real story. That’s something I picked up on in watching those shows.”

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Sarah Goodwin enjoys ‘pushing’ her characters.