We chat with author Gayle Forman about After Life, which explores the porous veil between life and death, examines the impact that one person can have on the world, and celebrates life in all its beautiful complexity.
Hi, Gayle! Welcome back! How have the past couple of years been since we last spoke?
They’ve been pretty great actually. It was rough for a bit. Pandemic. Health issues. Family drama. Some mental health struggles. But I came out the other side and feel as joyful and connected as ever. I also got a dog. Here’s a picture. I will never not have a dog again. Dogs make everything better.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
When I was in kindergarten, we would dictate stories and the teachers would type them up (on a typewriter, this being the 1970s!) and then we’d draw pictures. My pictures were horrible but my stories were…wild? A little girl being locked in a closet but it turns out her family just went on vacation and forgot her (like Home Alone but less antic) and a little girl who explodes, the last line of which is, “She went pop. And then she said amen.”
But really, it was when I was a little older and my parents would take me hiking through the canyons of LA that are on fire as I write this and I would be BORED OUT OF MY MIND. I started making up stories to entertain myself. I think that is when I really began to love the power of story to transport.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: A series of books called Sweet Dreams Romances. They hooked me on reading. My dad would buy me one a week.
- The one that made you want to become an author: Jane Eyre.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Playground by Richard Powers. Just finished it and in its way it is about climate catastrophe and destruction (in the oceans not forests) but so much more.
Your latest novel, After Life, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Ripple effects make us immortal.
What can readers expect?
A ghost story. A metaphysical mystery. A lot of different POVs that you might be like, What in the hell do these people have to do with the story? A big cathartic payoff at the end.
Where did the inspiration for After Life come from?
I had this vision of this 17-year-old girl with the most unexceptional life in the world riding her bike home from school one day only to discover that she’d been dead for seven years, knocked off the bike she just pedaled home. I began writing and just followed the breadcrumb trail.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I loved being able to explore Amber’s parents as parents but also as young adults themselves. I loved Mr. King the English teacher. And Melissa, who’s the hero of the story. I could write a whole book about Melissa.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
I just looked on my hard drive to see the date of the first draft of this book and it’s February 2016. This was another book that took me a while. Partly because I began it in what I now see was a period of depression and anxiety when I wrote several books and thought they were all garbage—clearly, I was wrong; these books have slowly been coming out and they are among my favorites. But even in the best of times, the complex nature of this story was not something I could bang out in a few months. It needed to season.
What do you hope readers take away from After Life?
Two things.
One: All of us are like pebbles dropped into a pool of water. Our lives create ripple effects on other people. Some we can see. Others we cannot. To me, that is a very hopeful idea. That we are connected. That we impact people we never know, and never know the way we have impacted them
Two: Our culture is very bad at death. It’s like an enemy to be fought off rather than an inevitable passage we all will go through. And the dead are, depending on your faith, gone forever, or gone until you reunite in some afterlife. That thick wall between life and death makes losing someone even harder. But there are ways to keep people with you that are so comforting and can ease that pain. Through memory, through love. Love makes all of us immortal.
With so many incredible titles to your name, what are some of the key lessons you’ve learned as a writer since your debut?
Focus on the work. Detach from everything else. I feel so privileged that after 20 years of doing this, I still get to write stories for my job. But I’ve also seen how much of this is out of my control. So I focus on the work, the stories I’m writing, the wonderful people I work with and try to let go of the outcome. I remind myself daily that I already have enough. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to be able to do this job.
What’s next for you?
I had two books come out within six months and have spent a lot of time promoting them so I am eager to get back to drafting my next YA novel, which I’m collaborating with my 20-year-old daughter on. It’s sort of Eat Pray Love meets Girl Interrupted. And then of like fifteen other projects and ideas, I have to decide which ones to focus on.
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up in 2025?
Ha! I never really know what’s coming out. I read a lot on Libby these days and anytime someone raves about a book, I shove it on my holds list. Right now, I have 14 books on hold, a lot of nonfiction. I’m really excited about Arlie Russel-Hothschild’s Stolen Pride because I loved her book Strangers in Their Own Land. On the YA front, I’m so excited about Libba Bray’s Under The Same Stars, but I’ve already read it and know it’s amazing. And Adam Silvera’s next They Both Die book, which comes out some time this year. Oh, and Adam Gidwiit’s Max in the Land of Lies, I am dying to read because the first book, Max in the House of Spies, ended with an insane cliffhanger.
