We chat with author Anna Johnston about The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife, which is a warm, life-affirming debut about a zany case of mistaken identity that allows a lonely old man one last chance to be part of a family.
Hi, Anna! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I’m a former baby, aspiring octogenarian, and debut Australian author with a love for the heartfelt and hilarious. I grew up in country Victoria before moving to Melbourne where I live joyously with my husband, two daughters, and elderly Italian Greyhound by the beach.
My father was a wonderful doctor and I always aspired to be like him. Yet when I was nearing the end of my medical studies, I began to discover that my true fulfillment lay in aged care. While my fellow med students were fascinated by cadaver dissection and pharmacology, I was struck by the number of older patients who were socially isolated and the tangible effect this had on both their mental and physical health. In Medicine, we learned how to keep people alive, yet I saw so many who had a pulse but were not really living. A defibrillator could keep a heart beating yet could never give it someone or something to beat for. I knew I wanted to be part of prevention, not treatment.
Having enjoyed a close relationship with all of my grandparents and even my great-grandfather, I was drawn to work with older people (not just because we shared the same taste in music and a strong preference for eating dinner at 5 pm). I transferred to a Health Promotion degree and developed an award-winning local government program teaching older widowed men how to cook.
When my grandfather and best friend Fred was diagnosed with dementia, I followed my heart into his nursing home and became the social support coordinator so we could spend more time together. I took great delight in challenging assumptions of what older people enjoy and are capable of, of the mind that just because life ends in a nursing home, living doesn’t have to.
Shortly after my grandfather died, my first daughter was born and I became a stay-at-home mum for many years. It was during the pandemic and the world’s longest lockdown here in Melbourne that I began writing and both my sourdough starter (also called Fred!) and my novel were born. Injury and multiple surgeries had left me unable to return to aged care so, after some online creative writing courses, I began to channel my love for older people onto the page.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
My love of writing began when I was five years old. Whilst most kids were playing Lego or Barbies, my best friend and I spent our childhood writing plays and short films that we’d act out for our very patient parents! These formative years helped shape me as a storyteller and my lifelong adoration of theater and screenplay continues to inspire my writing. As I type each scene, I see it play out like a movie in my head, complete with a cinematic soundtrack!
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: The Enchanted Wood by Enid Blyton.
- The one that made you want to become an author: Two Weeks with the Queen by Morris Gleitzman.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Maureen Fry and the Angel of the North by Rachel Joyce.
Your debut novel, The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Life-affirming, moving, hilarious, heart-stirring, redemptive.
What can readers expect?
Aching sides and wet cheeks! (I have been told by many readers that the book should come with a box of tissues and regret my decision to not buy shares in Kleenex).
Readers can expect the full spectrum of human emotion. I wanted to write a book that is deeply moving, yet thickly coated with humor and hope. While many funny books in this genre stay light, others delve deep without humor. I wanted to amplify both. Although crime is not my preferred genre, I love its twists and sought to bring that intrigue to my writing, blending uplifting themes with surprising turns.
They say, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” To make lemonade, you need sugar and for me, humor is the sugar that makes the unbearable, bearable. In the book, you’ll find everything from toilet humor to profound explorations of grief, loss, and dementia. It displays humanity unfolding in all its messy glory—whether it’s weak bladders and aching joints or the wonder of how a heart can continue to beat and love even when it’s broken. Above all, I hope Fred inspires kindness, leaving readers uplifted and reminded that connection, compassion, and love can transform lives and mend hearts.
As a positive aging advocate, I also aspire to offer gentle insight into aging and related matters like loss and dementia and hope to reach people touched by these issues. People over eighty are commonly under or misrepresented in the arts, so I wanted to create not just an older character but an older hero who inspires hope and shows that worth, unlike eyesight, does not diminish with age
Where did the inspiration for The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife come from?
They say to write what you know. It may therefore be rather alarming that my book mentions prostates more than once! Jokes aside, the one thing that I count myself privileged to know is love. I grew up thinking all love was unconditional because it’s all I ever knew from my parents and grandparents.
The idea for the novel began with the creation of its protagonist Fred, who not only shares my late grandfather’s name but also his delightful, selfless, and endearing nature. Pa was my best friend, whose gratitude, humor, and kindness lit up any room he was in. He had countless strengths, but his poker face wasn’t one of them! He was so honest that he found it difficult to even play a card game that required bluffing. Plot stems from conflict, so I contemplated what would happen if you placed such a man in a situation where he was desperate enough to deceive (if he believed he wasn’t hurting anyone). Doppelgängers and cases of mistaken identity have always fascinated me, and I began developing the idea of one man being able to redeem another man’s life, even after death. The story grew quickly from there.
I was also inspired by my grandparents’ adoration of each other which was a source of joy for anyone who met them. Pa was a wordsmith and an inspiration to me as a writer. Right up until his early eighties, he wrote poetry for my gorgeous grandmother Dawn. When dementia took away that ability, I became his pen and helped him write to her, so he could continue loving her in the way he wanted to. The story is infused with their beautiful romance.
While the plot, characters, and setting are fictional, the love is entirely real.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I adored all of it! Being based on my grandfather, I obviously had a strong emotional attachment to Fred, but in all honesty, this ended up extending to all the characters. As my friends and family will attest, I’m a major empath, but this empathy doesn’t just stop at real humans! I feel deeply for my characters and can often be found weeping at my computer or in fits of giggles over something that happens to them. I’m not sure if this makes for good writing or if I should seek professional help! Nonetheless, I love this part of the process and don’t feel I could write without emotional attachment–it’s the best gauge I have of whether something is working and a more significant milestone for me than any word count.
As mentioned previously, I also loved balancing the light and dark. Those who know me would say I’m a romantic old soul made up of fifty percent sentimentality, fifty percent humor and twenty percent drama. And, that math isn’t my strong suit! In all seriousness though, humor is like oxygen to me and I’ve always found it an incredibly powerful way to discuss challenging issues.
This is your debut published novel! What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?
Once my manuscript was polished to the best of my ability (with the help of some fabulous beta readers!), I entered a couple of writing competitions to little avail and began preparing a query letter to submit to agents and publishers. However, before I sent anything out, I signed up for Virtual Literary Speed Dating. This is a unique and fabulous opportunity offered by the Australian Society of Authors in which you have three minutes to pitch your novel to a publisher or agent on Zoom. I had never tried any form of speed dating and it was quite a nerve-wracking prospect! But rather than a man who likes piña coladas and walks on the beach, my “date” was with one of the lovely editors at Penguin Random House Australia. I was thrilled when she requested my full manuscript the following week but also began preparing myself for a ‘no’ with my Stephen King rejection nail and hammer at the ready (it’s a thing, google it!). But I never needed the nail because this was THE YES! And not for one book, but two. I feel incredibly lucky and grateful to have had this door open so quickly and don’t take it for granted that everything aligned that day.
Even though I didn’t need an agent here in Australia, I decided to get one and am so glad I did. She enlisted UK and US agents and not long after I had international offers and a publishing contract with Harper Collins USA, and Nemira Publishing Romania. I’m also thrilled to have a media rights agent in LA who is pitching to writers and producers for screen adaptation, which for me was always the ultimate aspiration from the minute I typed the first word. Not too long ago, I would have told myself I was dreaming. Now that my dreams and reality have begun to merge like the perfect gin and tonic, I’m starting to believe that anything is possible.
What’s next for you?
I’m currently working on my second book, set for release in the US in early 2025. It tells the story of Griff, a retired Michelin star chef who lives in a nursing home, widowed, depressed, and determined to depart this earth. Unwilling to let the flavorless mush served at the home be the last thing he tastes, he breaks into the nursing home kitchen to cook himself a final meal, sparking a long-forgotten joy and an unexpected chain of events.
Meanwhile, fifty-year-old Lisa harbors a shameful secret. During weekly visits to her stepbrother who suffers from dementia, she unexpectedly falls in love with an older man. Their relationship is put to the test as Lisa begins to show signs of a genetic kidney disease that claimed her mother’s life before she could find a donor.
As their stories converge, the heat is turned up while Lisa fights to hold onto life and Griff seeks a reason to embrace it. It’s a story about the power of food, purpose, visibility, and connection.
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed so far this year and are there any that you can’t wait to get your hands on?
Some of my favorites this year (not all new releases!) have been, The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin, The Funny Thing about Noreman Foreman by Julietta Henderson, Tilda is Visible by Jane Tara, and The Last Love Note by Emma Grey. I can’t wait to get my hands on Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment!
