But the novel really started years earlier, when I gave birth to the first of our two kids. I was a youngest-of-eight who had never had a job that required set hours or responsibility, and motherhood broke and remade me. Only when I got the idea for Room did I realise that I had three and a half years’ worth of things to say. I don’t expect every novel of mine to be a bestseller, but there’s a new emphasis on gripping plots. The settings often have, if not a locked door, then a claustrophobic quality and a ticking clock.

Source: The Guardian May 08, 2021 12:00 UTC