Vicki asked Gabrielle Zevin:

You seem to have an 'old soul,' to be able to portray Liz, but especially A.J., as such circumspect characters! For someone so young, how do you get that life perspective or poignancy that usually comes with age? My book club is reading the full text of A.J.'s literary references, and even these are chosen as one who has done a lifetime of reading and reflection.

Gabrielle Zevin Just last week, I was doing an interview with an Italian newspaper, and the reporter said, "I thought you were 60 years old!" I said, "I am 60 years old. I have always been 60 years old." Even when I was a small child, I felt incredibly old. I wouldn't have called it old then--I just felt a strange awareness that my mind existed separately from my body--indeed that all minds exist separately from bodies! A person, upon seeing me, would see a small child, but inside, I felt terribly complicated! On account of this, I spent most of my childhood feeling lightly misunderstood. In any case, I have never had trouble imagining what it is to be old, and maybe this is the reason I am a novelist. Part of the novelist's craft--maybe the most important part--is empathy. We must imagine ages we have yet to be, places we have never traveled, people we have never met (or been). When I have trouble writing a character, it is because I have failed to imagine that person fully. It is a failure of empathy. If I can't imagine what it is to be old--something I will inevitably be--what luck will I have imagining the life of anyone beyond myself?

But I digress... I am glad you are reading the full text of A.J.'s literary references. I spent a good amount of time putting them together, and until this very moment, I have had no solid evidence that anyone has ever looked at them.

Thank you for writing! And say hello to the book club.

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