Lily King
Hi and thanks so much! I very much departed from fact with the ending and I did that because I felt the story demanded it. I felt it was part of Fen's character, part of the result of all the frustration and rage and impotence (of all kinds!) he was feeling at that point. People have asked me what I didn't give Nell the ending Mead had, and the truth is, if you research what went on and the letters she wrote back home, she was very very lucky to have come back alive. She wrote that she and Bateson were convinced the whole time that her husband was going to kill them both.
More Answered Questions
Danielle Bauter
asked
Lily King:
Hi Lily, I absolutely loved Euphoria-- so much so that I started a book club just so that I would have people to discuss it with. I loved how the book is loosely based on the life of Margaret Mead. What I wanted to ask is if you see yourself doing something like this again in the future-- write a novel about the life of another historical figure?
Ami
asked
Lily King:
Through a stroke of luck, I read Euphoria right before reading Elizabeth Gilbert's The Signature of All Things. And when I describe the book to friends I say it's a mixture of that and Ann Patchett's State of Wonder. Did these titles--or any others--inspire you while you were writing or revising?
Narci Drossos
asked
Lily King:
I absolutely immersed myself in Euphoria - although the cover description wouldn't have made me pick it up. I read it for ELLE. I think having read Under the Wide and Starry Sky helped me immediately "get" Euphoria. Do you find any parallels in the novels? What inspired you to write about women who were so far ahead of their time? I can't imagine having boarded a boat back then, destined for islands unknown......
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