March, 2024
“Fiction is the great lie that tells the truth about how the world lives!”
~ Abraham Verghese,
The Covenant of Water
Verghese’s quote is a perfect epigraph for any work of fiction. The moment I read the sentence, I knew I wanted to have it at the beginning of Finding Isobel.
I love the feeling of a physical book. All the same, when Kindle readers came along, I was seduced by their convenience. The same with books on tape and CD, which were a godsend on long road trips. Since retiring I no longer have a commute, and as a result don’t listen to many books as opposed to reading them. But many people do — far more than I would ever have thought. That fact persuaded me to record an audiobook of Abbey Girls, the memoir I wrote with my sister Val. The book is an exchange of letters, each of us describing how we saw our childhood days at boarding school in Ireland. Even though we wrote those letters sixty years later, the exchange is authentic, with both of us disagreeing on many of those “truths”. We had so much fun narrating the book!
My first novel, A Measured Thread, is about an elderly Irish immigrant living in Wisconsin, so it wasn’t such a stretch for me to be the narrator. I remember enjoying the experience, perhaps because it took place during Covid when I had all the time in the world. Additionally, the recording studio was an isolated space, with little possibility of my catching anything. When I had finished writing my new novel, Finding Isobel, I thought long and hard about whether I should be the one to narrate it. After all, it’s about a young woman who grew up in Canada, travels to New Zealand, and later finds herself in Bosnia. My voice doesn’t sound young, and I cannot do any of the accents involved. Still, I recognize that an author brings something to the table that a professional, no matter how good they are, cannot. The author has a deep understanding of every character in the story, together with the underlying emotions of every scene. Ownership brings a level of authenticity to the narration that’s hard to match.
Recently I listened to Abraham Verghese read his new novel, The Covenant of Water. I had the physical book by my side, but listening to his voice for over 30 hours brought an extra dimension to his story. It was mesmerizing. Later when I re-read the text, I could hear his voice in my head and it sang to me. After that experience, I arranged to spend a week in February in the recording studio in Madison.
The experience was far more demanding this time — mentally, physically and emotionally. I stood in front of my computer in the studio with headphones on, and read each chapter as if I were living every scene. Sometimes I misspoke and corrected myself. Sometimes Jake, the recording engineer, interrupted and asked me to repeat a sentence. At the end of each chapter (there are 42), I’d sit down and take a sip of water, glad of the short respite while Jake did some edits. Then, standing up and taking another deep breath, I’d continue with the story — for up to 4 hours each day, by which time I was utterly drained. Still, at the end of the week I felt elated, not just that I had finished, but that I had done justice to Isobel’s story. I’m so glad that it’s my voice you’ll hear.
Finding Isobel is being published today, the Spring Equinox! The paperback and e-book are available immediately. You’ll find a link to purchase information on my website, mvbehan.com. As always, I encourage you to support your local bookstore and order from them. And if you are one of those people who prefers to listen, the audiobook should be available in the next month or so. As soon as it’s ready I’ll post something on Facebook (Mary Behan Writer) and Instagram (@marybehanwrites).
And now, back to writing!
~ Mary
“Fiction is the great lie that tells the truth about how the world lives!”
~ Abraham Verghese,
The Covenant of Water
Verghese’s quote is a perfect epigraph for any work of fiction. The moment I read the sentence, I knew I wanted to have it at the beginning of Finding Isobel.
I love the feeling of a physical book. All the same, when Kindle readers came along, I was seduced by their convenience. The same with books on tape and CD, which were a godsend on long road trips. Since retiring I no longer have a commute, and as a result don’t listen to many books as opposed to reading them. But many people do — far more than I would ever have thought. That fact persuaded me to record an audiobook of Abbey Girls, the memoir I wrote with my sister Val. The book is an exchange of letters, each of us describing how we saw our childhood days at boarding school in Ireland. Even though we wrote those letters sixty years later, the exchange is authentic, with both of us disagreeing on many of those “truths”. We had so much fun narrating the book!
My first novel, A Measured Thread, is about an elderly Irish immigrant living in Wisconsin, so it wasn’t such a stretch for me to be the narrator. I remember enjoying the experience, perhaps because it took place during Covid when I had all the time in the world. Additionally, the recording studio was an isolated space, with little possibility of my catching anything. When I had finished writing my new novel, Finding Isobel, I thought long and hard about whether I should be the one to narrate it. After all, it’s about a young woman who grew up in Canada, travels to New Zealand, and later finds herself in Bosnia. My voice doesn’t sound young, and I cannot do any of the accents involved. Still, I recognize that an author brings something to the table that a professional, no matter how good they are, cannot. The author has a deep understanding of every character in the story, together with the underlying emotions of every scene. Ownership brings a level of authenticity to the narration that’s hard to match.
Recently I listened to Abraham Verghese read his new novel, The Covenant of Water. I had the physical book by my side, but listening to his voice for over 30 hours brought an extra dimension to his story. It was mesmerizing. Later when I re-read the text, I could hear his voice in my head and it sang to me. After that experience, I arranged to spend a week in February in the recording studio in Madison.
The experience was far more demanding this time — mentally, physically and emotionally. I stood in front of my computer in the studio with headphones on, and read each chapter as if I were living every scene. Sometimes I misspoke and corrected myself. Sometimes Jake, the recording engineer, interrupted and asked me to repeat a sentence. At the end of each chapter (there are 42), I’d sit down and take a sip of water, glad of the short respite while Jake did some edits. Then, standing up and taking another deep breath, I’d continue with the story — for up to 4 hours each day, by which time I was utterly drained. Still, at the end of the week I felt elated, not just that I had finished, but that I had done justice to Isobel’s story. I’m so glad that it’s my voice you’ll hear.
Finding Isobel is being published today, the Spring Equinox! The paperback and e-book are available immediately. You’ll find a link to purchase information on my website, mvbehan.com. As always, I encourage you to support your local bookstore and order from them. And if you are one of those people who prefers to listen, the audiobook should be available in the next month or so. As soon as it’s ready I’ll post something on Facebook (Mary Behan Writer) and Instagram (@marybehanwrites).
And now, back to writing!
~ Mary
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