About: Sarah Magee is an inveterate traveler, unabashed globalist, and firm believer in always eating dessert first. It is never too early for ice cream. She is a master packer of suitcases and lifelong Michigander.
1. You describe yourself as an inveterate traveler and globalist. How have those experiences shaped not only your storytelling but also your outlook on life?
I can’t imagine a life that isn’t filled with friends from around the world, with international flavors, with Paris Match and foreign films. That global-ness adds so much color and texture to my life – and to the world. I teach a class for students preparing to study abroad and I’m often asked if all of the stories I tell in class are true. They are. Travel makes life interesting. Meeting new people, trying new foods, asking questions about history and culture and drawing comparisons – these aspects of life are essential to me.
2. Growing up, were there books or writers who made you feel, “This is what I want to do one day”?
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to write! Or when I wasn’t writing. Liss’s childhood writings in I Never Said I Love You are, in fact, from my own childhood. Betty Smith (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Joy in the Morning) and Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden) most inspired me. These were the types of books I dreamed of writing.
3. Who outside of literature has influenced you most, someone whose voice or presence echoes in your work even now?
My great-grandfather was the greatest storyteller I have known in my life, and in composing a story – a reflection or a memory from a character’s past, say – I often find myself considering how he might have unspooled it.
4. The novel opens with the idea that “the ghosts that haunt us aren’t always human.” What kinds of ghosts inspired this story for you personally?
Well, this book is based very heavily on a true story, so that’s the most direct source of inspiration, of course, but I think more generally, it’s the idea of the roads not taken. There are so many forks in the road, often mundane things. As one example, and because this book is set at a university, say I had gone to another university – my friends would have been different, my career path would have been different. It really is the butterfly effect and so when I think of the ghosts, they are all the choices one doesn’t take, the friends and lovers one doesn’t meet, the lives one doesn’t live.
5. Liss and Nao Kao come from such different worlds, yet their connection feels undeniable. What, for you, makes their relationship so powerful?
As I mentioned, this book is based on a true story, and for the better part of two decades even my closest friends didn’t have any idea about it. When I was writing, in many ways the story was still unfolding. I wrote for my friends, and I think in hindsight I can say that I also wrote for myself, as part of my own sense-making. So I think the power of the connection that readers can feel emanates from the fact that the relationship, and the emotions, were very real.
6. Did you always envision the novel as being told through two voices, or did that structure emerge as you wrote?
I wrote the novel pretty quickly, and I wrote it in a single voice. I fictionalized the characters quite a bit – elements of Liss are based on me, for example, but she is not me and I am not her. The same for Nao Kao. But Nao Kao is a real person and I didn’t feel it was my place to try to tell his story. In the editing process though, both my friends and my agent lobbied for incorporating more of Nao Kao’s voice. I am grateful and appreciative that he supported including sections told from Nao Kao’s perspective.
7. The story spans more than twenty years. How did you approach showing how people change while still remaining tied to their younger selves?
I’m fortunate to have amazing friends, many of whom I have known for many years. One of the things I’ve noticed is that the friends I’ve known for 20 and 30 and 40 years are still, at heart, the same people they were when we first met and first became friends. Wiser, yes – but their core elements remain. It reminds me of Maya Angelou saying, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
8. Forgiveness feels central to the book. Do you believe forgiveness is possible without fully understanding the other person’s choices?
In the short-term, I don’t. In the longer term, I think time softens memory’s edges and things that felt important become less so. Very few grudges are worth bearing indefinitely.
9. Your research into Laos clearly shaped the novel. Was there one detail or discovery that unlocked Nao Kao’s character for you?
I spent a lot of time reflecting on the impacts of war on childhood, and the ghosts that follow the children of war well into adulthood.
10. The novel also takes readers to Senegal. What made you choose that setting, and what role does it play in the larger journey?
In real life, I’m a study abroad director. I’ve had the incredible privilege of exploring over 70 countries, including Senegal, which I traveled to with two dear friends and colleagues, and which made an indelible impression on me. My recollections of our visit there are vivid, and I also wanted to include a place that might provide a new or different perspective to readers.
11. Travel almost feels like another character in the book. Is there a journey of your own that completely changed the way you see the world?
I have always been a traveler at heart so when my elementary school offered a two-way exchange program for fifth graders, my parents signed me up. Through this Back-to-Back program, I spent several weeks living with a family in the south of France when I was 10 years old. The little girl I was matched with lived with her grandparents, spoke Italian with them (not the French I had anticipated), ate soft-boiled eggs for breakfast, and traveled in a car without seatbelts in the backseat. It opened my eyes to the many ways of being in the world, and I think to a large extent I continue to carry that sense of wonder with me when I travel.
12. The idea of “red threads” connecting people is beautiful. Do you feel you’ve experienced such a red-thread moment in your own life?
Absolutely. Just as one example, I met one of my dearest friends, the one who actually first encouraged me to write this novel, when she was part of my son’s physical therapy team, and yet it felt like we’d known each other forever. For our lives to intersect in this way certainly felt fated.
13. Which scene in the novel was the most emotionally difficult for you to write, and why?
Several scenes really made me confront events in my past in ways that really challenged me, but the most difficult scene for me to write was the ending. I had to write an ending before I had any idea how the story would end – really, before I even knew how I wanted it to end. And, to tell the truth, the ending in the book is not what I wrote originally. But my friends – my early readers, the ones I was writing for – almost unanimously aligned in disliking the original ending. So, give the people what they want.
14. What was the biggest challenge you faced while writing this book, the structure, the voices, or the emotional weight of the story?
I would say there were two challenges of equal magnitude. I needed to do justice to the story, while also creating a fictional novel without veering into memoir and, in a similar vein, to do justice to the portrayal of Laos, and Lao people and culture.
15. Did you ever feel stuck in the process, and if so, what helped you move forward?
Honestly, I didn’t. I wrote this very quickly, over a couple of months at the height of the Covid pandemic. It was my pastime and my escape from the dreary events of the day, and also, truly, a gift for my friends.
16. Winning the American Fiction Award for Travelogue and being a finalist in Multicultural Fiction must have been unforgettable. How did that recognition feel as a debut author?
Recognition of a job well done is always validating. As a debut author, it was especially meaningful to know that the story resonated beyond my circle of friends.
17. Have you had the chance to join book clubs or conversations with readers? What’s the most surprising thing someone has said about your novel?
I have, and it’s probably been my favorite aspect of the publishing journey. I’ll also add that, if our schedules align, I’m happy to meet with any book clubs – no charge – so please do send me a message if you’re interested.
I have been most surprised by the number of readers who have told me they read it a second, or even a third time, in relatively short order to capture everything. It’s rare for me to re-read a book, so hearing this really struck me.
18. Which authors inspire you most, not just in their writing, but in how they live and approach the world?
For many years, I’ve said that when I grow up I’d like to be David Quammen. He’s definitely at the top of my list of author-heroes for his life’s work that combines travel, research, and writing so beautifully. In close second is Harper Lee, who I’ve always admired for writing one of the great American novels and then living an otherwise quiet, private, and anonymous life.
19. You’ve spoken about your love of narrative nonfiction. Do you see yourself blending nonfiction and fiction in future projects, or are you drawn more strongly to novels now?
I love books that teach the reader something, whether those books are fiction or non-fiction. I can’t imagine writing anything that doesn’t draw heavily on the tradition of incorporating history, culture, or other such elements.
20. Since travel is such a core part of your life, if you could write your next book from anywhere in the world, where would you choose, and why?
From home, and for exactly the reason you’ve noted: travel is such a core part of my life, that there’s a delicious pleasure in being home, sitting in a sunlight-dappled room, surrounded by all that is familiar, and being able to lose myself in the characters and stories I’m creating.
Check out this book, I Never Said I Love You, a compelling novel about love, growth, and self-discovery
Book Review: I Never Said I Love You by Sarah Magee
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