One Great Lie is a compelling and atmospheric YA story of romance, mystery, and power about a young woman discovering her strength in lush, sultry Venice—from the Printz Honor–winning author of A Heart in a Body in the World.
We chat with author Deb Caletti about One Great Lie, writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Deb! Tell our readers a bit about yourself!
Hi to all of you! I’m the author of nearly twenty books for adults and young adults, including Honey, Baby, Sweetheart, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and A Heart in a Body in the World, a Michael L. Printz Honor Book. My books have also won the Josette Frank Award for Fiction, as well as other state awards and honors, and I was a finalist for the PEN USA Award. I’ve also written two books of a series for middle grade readers, A Flicker of Courage, and The Weird in the Wilds. I live in beautiful Seattle!
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
Okay! Ramona the Pest. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. All the Light You Cannot See.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I started writing when I was about seven. My love for writing came rapidly on the coattails of my love for reading.
Your new novel One Great Lie is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Lush, atmospheric, mysterious, deeply feminist.
What can readers expect?
Readers can expect a book that is definitely for book lovers, full of the stuff we love: ancient manuscripts, a palatial, centuries-old library, and an utterly magical bookstore, the charming Libreria Acqua Alta, with its volumes upon volumes stored in boats and bathtubs to protect them during the seasonal flooding in Venice. Readers can also expect a story that features romance and mystery, but one that also features feminist themes.
The story begins when a young writer, Charlotte, wins a spot in a summer writing program in Venice, Italy, led by her favorite author, the brilliant and charismatic Luca Bruni. While there, she’ll also get the chance to delve into a troubling question about her long-ago Venetian ancestor, Isabella Di Angelo, who just might be the real author of a very famous poem. When she arrives, though… La Calamita, the island where Luca’s villa is, is beautiful, but it was home to quarantine victims of the plague centuries ago, and it’s eerie. And Luca Bruni himself… Well, you’ll have to read to find out. As Charlotte gets closer and closer to the truth about Isabella – and closer, too, to the sweet, smart conservation student, Dante, who helps her – things go very wrong. The events of that summer will force Charlotte to confront some dark truths about the history of powerful men—and about the determination of creative girls. While the plot is fictional, everything else in the book – the places, locations, and historical facts, are either true or based on true events.
What was the inspiration behind One Great Lie?
The novel was inspired by the whole art-versus-artist debate that resurfaced during the #MeToo movement. All of my books come from a need to understand my life and the world around me, and One Great Lie gave me the chance to examine my own feelings and the larger issues around female creativity and the history of powerful men that was very much on my mind then. One of the book’s most important elements is that history, and how far back it actually goes. In the book, you’ll discover (same as I did after much astonishing research) some of our earliest feminists: the teen poets of the Renaissance. These fierce, brave young women were writing bold and controversial works about the very same power dynamics we are still struggling with, and still writing about, today.
Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
Staying focused on this particular book was challenging at times, given that it was completed and edited during the pandemic. Luckily, it was mostly finished by then, and I think that’s what allowed me to overcome the struggle. I already had momentum, thankfully, and sometimes it was even a comfort to be able to retreat into a book that I loved writing. Editing is a favorite part of my writing process, so that also helped. It would have been much more difficult if I’d been attempting to start a new book.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I really enjoyed writing the whole setting of Venice – just “being” there again was wonderful, even if just in my imagination. It’s such an enchanting, surreal place. I also enjoyed creating the character of Luca Bruni. Bruni does some awful things, but he’s a layered character, which was an enjoyable challenge. He needed to be as complex as such people are in real life: brilliant, troubled, someone you both felt sorry for and longed to be, utterly charismatic, ultimately empty.
But I most enjoyed discovering and writing about the people, real people, who I didn’t even know were going to be in the book, who found their way in only after one bit of astonishing research lefd to more of it: the feminist writers of five hundred years ago. I had absolutely no idea that women (many of them teens) were writing and publishing bold, controversial, and even dangerous, feminist works back in the 1500s. It was an awful and shocking realization, how little had changed.
Is there anything you hope readers will take away from reading One Great Lie?
I’d love for readers to share my own realization, that we are still writing about, and still struggling with, the same power dynamics that women were attempting to change five hundred years ago. When we think of the feminist movement, we thinks of the 1970’s, or, farther back, the suffragettes of the early twentieth century. But not five hundred years ago! To share the stories of some of these women – it was extraordinarily meaningful to me, and I hope it will be to my readers, too.
As a side note, I’d also love for my readers to know that all of the places, celebrations, and historical facts, facts about drowned manuscripts, locked letters, young women locked in convents, and more that they’ll read about in the book are all real and true. Fictional license was taken with Luca Bruni’s private island, La Calamita, but it, too, is based on the very real “Plague Island,” La Poveglia, which is still home to the original, eerie, abandoned hospital and bell tower. Facts about it, the superstitions, the ground of ash… all true. I’ve never done more (and more fascinating) research for a book, and I’m thrilled to share it.
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
The best writing advice I’ve ever read: End your writing day when you know what’s coming next. I think this may originally have been from Hemingway. I always try to do this. I know that if I stop when I’m stuck, it’ll be very difficult to get going again, to the point of dread. Instead, stopping when you have a clear path ahead makes the writing something to look forward to.
I’ve only taken one creative writing class in my life, and have always been very private about my work, so I haven’t personally heard a lot of bad writing advice. I’ve seen a lot of it out there, though. Some advice I see sounds exploitive, fear-mongering, or just plain uninformed, or inexperienced. Writing is a craft, and an art, and it can take years to develop. When it’s done best, it comes from an urgent and seeply personal place. Which all means that it’s not a great landscape for rules and have-to’s. The advice that I give most often is to avoid writing advice. Your honest voice is your most powerful asset as a writer.
What’s next for you?
I’m working on a YA novel, likely for 2022. It doesn’t have a title yet, but it’s about identity, and how social media and all of the fear messages we are constantly getting make it so hard to feel that we’re generally safe and capable people. How can we be brave in the world, too, after all we’ve recently been through? How do we feel safe again? It’s a book that strives to offer the things I myself need right now from books: hope and humor and truth-telling.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
So many! Some recent favorites: The Friend, Sigred Nunez; Recollections of My Non-Existence, Rebecca Solnit; Jenny Offil’s Dept. of Speculation and Weather; Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation; Mary H.K. Choi’s Yolk; An American Marriage, Tayari Jones, and, oh, I could go on and on!
