Today we chat with Hannah Cao about her first—and beautiful—novel Cafe at 46 Old Street. This debut is an amazing comfort book, a story that features four extremely real characters who will change each other’s lives after meeting and connecting with each other at a small coffee shop in London.
In this interview, we talked with Hannah about her writing process, her favourite parts to write, upcoming projects, and so much more! Don’t miss out on this emotional and heartfelt debut!
Hello Hannah! First of all thank you for joining us and congratulations on your debut novel! Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
Thank you for having me! I’m a Vietnamese-German poet and novelist based in Germany and when people ask me what I write about, I find that I can summarise it very well by saying that I am fascinated by people and places, thus I write about people and places, and everything in between. I work two jobs – I’m a barista and also a hotel receptionist by day. I read in my breaks and on my way to work and back home, and I spend my nights watching films and writing. Growing up in Germany, having lived a while in England, and spending summers in Vietnam, I have always felt like I belonged to three different places – or these places have stolen parts of me so I am left with a constant sense of yearning.
Now, tell us more about Cafe at 46 Old Street! What can readers expect?
I like to describe my debut novel as a love letter to London, written in four POVs, about a cafe owner, a baker, a barkeeper and the new regular who meet in this Soho Cafe at 46 Old Street and end up changing each other’s lives. It’s a character driven story and best read with a cup of tea in a cosy setting.
What sparked you to bring this story to the page?
My love for London, clearly, and my urge to write something comforting for the everyday people. The people who feel like they should do more. The people who feel scared to take a leap. The people who are too scared to fail. The people who feel too different.
Cafe at 46 Old Street is your debut novel. What’s been your favourite part about the writing and (self)publishing process so far?
I’ve always liked to romanticise places and appreciate a city filled to the brim with all different kinds of people with their own stories, and all the possibilities their lives could change in that very setting. Writing CA46OS, I could gush about my favourite city, part of myself, and bring its charm to the page as the backdrop to each of the characters’ lives. It was sort of an ode to London, but also an exploration of different themes I wanted to touch on. So the freedom of writing in any genre I like, and the freedom that comes with self-publishing, really made this experience feel like a passionate act rather than a job. That’s been my favourite part.
Could you tell us what challenges you faced and how you overcame them?
The biggest and most frequent challenge was impostor syndrome, for sure. I’m not traditionally published, so I went extra hard on myself when drafting, and editing. There was a lot of revision until I finally felt content. But these characters made me feel warm, and I thought, if this is what the story will make my readers feel, it will all be worth it. The feedback from my beta readers and encouragement coming from my loved ones definitely kept me going and in high spirits.
How did writing this story differ from your writing process of your prior poetry publications like Seashore?
SEASHORE is a collection of poems I had written over the years prior to 2019, about my life and love life in London, my childhood and growing up, about identity and self-acceptance, about falling out of and in love. It was a very personal collection and a liberating experience.
My writing process for CAFE AT 46 OLD STREET was very different as the characters and their issues and conflicts and personalities are fictional and entirely their own. I had to make up a plot, and dialogues, you know, and while in SEASHORE I wrote to be honest, in the novel I wrote hoping readers could fall in love with the atmospheres and the characters themselves. I wrote not to reflect on my life, but I wrote to create a comfort place for other people (it just happened to become one for me, too).
Each character has a very unique personality and each has their own share of insecurities and struggles.Without spoiling too much, what was your favourite character and moment to write?
It is very hard to choose a character I loved writing the most, because I very much enjoyed every POV. I do have a soft spot for the friendship between Clementine and Alex, though.
If you could recommend a book that matched Hanh, Winston, Clementine, and Alex’s personalities, which ones would they be?
- Winston – The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa
- Hanh – Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong
- Alex – On the Shortness of Life by Seneca
- Clementine – The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Do you have any book recs for us? What have your favourite reads of 2021 been?
My favourite books that did not necessarily come out last year, but I read last year, have been:
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
- Almond by Won-pyong Sohn
- If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha
And lastly, you’ve written on social media that you’re working on other novels, without giving any spoilers, is there anything you can tell us about them?
I don’t mind giving away what they will be about early on. 🙂
I’m currently working on two projects:
- THE PHAM GIRLS: Elliott Harvey comes home one day to find his partner, Irene Pham, and his three daughters missing. Nobody knows what happened to the Pham girls… until now, now that Elliott is dead. (Contemporary; written in interview style.)
- PERSONA: At Youdu Academy, seven students are cursed with flashbacks to their previous lives. Realising they are connected, they race against time to prevent a dark fate that they can’t seem to escape. (Dark academia, Asian mythology; it’s looking like this one will become a trilogy.)
I’m thinking of another poetry collection, but I want to put a lot of thought into its themes and topics before revealing anything else (for now).
