Lucas Rocha’s debut novel Where We Go From Here, which tells the story of three gay young adults in Brazil whose lives become intertwined in the face of HIV, releases in a few days. But before that, we had the pleasure of chatting with him! He shares us more about himself, his inspirations, his writing journey, and more!
Hi Lucas! Let’s start by telling our readers a little about yourself!
Hi, all! First of all, thank you so much for the invitation to talk a little about me and WHERE WE GO FROM HERE! My name is Lucas Rocha, I’m currently 28 years old and I’m a Brazilian writer born in Rio de Janeiro, but currently living in São Paulo. By day, I’m a librarian who works at a public library spreading the bookish joy through my community; by night, I share my time writing new projects, obsessing over some TV shows, books, music and a little bit of videogame… you know, the usual stuff. I’m also very fond of going outside (oh, how I miss those days!) to do exercises, and I usually spend a lot of my free time just hanging out with my friends. I share an apartment with one of my agents, so there’s a lot of bookish talk day and night in our house. I struggle every day to decide if I’m a cat or a dog person, I love My Chemical Romance (so much that I have a tattoo of their last album cover on my leg), David Bowie and some Brazilian music that I would love to introduce to you, (just hit me up on twitter!). ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE by Gabriel García Márquez is my all-time favourite book, just alongside TWO BOYS KISSING by David Levithan. I’m also vey fond of pão de queijo and carrot cake covered with brigadeiro, the two ultimate Brazilian foods.
What can the readers expect from Where We Go From Here?
This is definitely a happy book! I think that’s the first thing that I’d like to emphasize: this is not a tragic story. I spent so much time reading stories about HIV and Aids that carried so much heavy weight and sadness, but there are so few stories about how the life of a HIV+ person can be as just as fulfilling and messy. So, WHERE WE GO FROM HERE is a story about love and friendship regarding HIV positive people. It’s set in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and follows the lives of three main characters: Ian, Victor and Henrique. Ian just received the news that he is now HIV-positive, and his world understandably turns upside down. At the clinic where he gets tested, he meets Victor, who is there for the same reason after Henrique, a guy that he may like more than he’s willing to admit, discloses his own positive status. Victor tests negative, but he and Ian chat and Victor offers to connect Ian and Henrique for mutual support. Then, we follow the lives of these three Brazilian guys, their families, friends, hopes and dreams.
If you could describe WWGFH in one sentence, what would it be?
A funny book about realizing that you can have a fulfilling life even with all the challenges and unexpected things that might happen.
I simply adore the different perspectives of our three main characters. How did you go about building the characters of Ian, Victor, and Henrique?
The three of them are quite different in the way they think, and they are at very different stages of their lives. When I was outlining this novel, one of the things that I realized was that the three points of view option was the most effective way to tell this story. I wanted to talk about HIV with some nuances, and having the voices of Ian, Victor and Henrique, each with a different perspective about HIV to deal with, helped me navigate through many aspects of living with HIV or relating to it in some sort. That dynamic was fundamental to discuss different relations between people: the loneliness of a HIV+ person, the first fears that show up, the new knowledge that a recently diagnosed person acquires and all the things that we, as a society, assume about the virus and the people living with it. Once the voices of the three of them were set in my mind, creating the world around them was very organic.
I love and appreciate the fact that you’re trying to educate readers about HIV+ with this book. I actually learned a lot myself, too! Did you have to do a lot of research? What kinds of research did you do?
I had the initial spark to write WHERE WE GO FROM HERE after I read a medical article that asked people their thoughts on HIV and HIV positive people nowadays. In the interviews, I saw a lot of misconceptions and prejudice against HIV positive people, things that I thought were behind us, but are still very much alive. So, the first thing I did when I decided to write a novel about this subject was to search for YA novels that portrayed discussions about HIV in a way that could be hopeful for the future, but I did not find many of them to feel like there were enough. I wanted to tell a story about people who live with HIV or have relationships with HIV positive people in a way that was not stigmatized.
So, research was my main concern. When dealing with a subject such as HIV that can be sensitive to a lot of people, I had to be extra careful to deliver the proper information and to not spread misconceptions, improper terminology and/or false truths. I went to treatment centers and talked to a lot of infectologists and patients to understand the different points of view they had about the virus and about how it can affect one’s life. I also had to do a lot of rewriting: after my agent read the book, after my sensitivity and beta readers read it, alongside my Brazilian editor, and then with my translator and my US editor. It was a collective work of which I am very proud.
I realized WWGFH was originally published in Portuguese and was then translated to English to be published by Scholastic. (Congratulations by the way!) How did that happen? What was the process?
Ok, that requires a very extensive answer, because all of it still feels like a bizarre ride.
After I finished the book, in 2017, my agent sold it to one of the major publishing houses in Brazil. In 2018, I was able to debut at the Brazilian Book Fair—the Brazilian publishing process is very fast in comparison to the US—the major event in the Brazilian bookish scene. It so happens that 2018 was the same year that David Levithan was invited as an official guest, and Levithan’s work is published by the same house that originally published WHERE WE GO FROM HERE in Brazil. So, when David Levithan arrived at the publisher, one of the things that he asked my Brazilian publisher was about the new YA voices being published here, because one of the editors of his imprint, Orlando Dos Reis, was able to read in Portuguese and they were interested in bringing new voices to US young readers. That’s when my Brazilian editor gave David some books and, in the midst of all of them, my debut was there. A month later, I received an e-mail from Orlando telling me that he had enjoyed the book and was interested in publishing it in the US. At first, I honestly thought it was some sort of joke, prank or mistake, because that’s the kind of stuff that just doesn’t happen! I know that the US market is extremely competitive, and the rule is that an authors’ agent goes after the publishing houses. My novel had only been out for Brazilian readers for a month before PUSH’s offer! All of it was very unbelievable. But it turned out to be all true.
We had to make small changes to some of the references in the book for the US audience but, overall, it was an incredibly positive experience because the essence of the book is still there. Working with Orlando was amazing because he is such a great editor and all of his suggestions were so on point that he made the story even better! In the end, it all comes to this word that he uses in his editor’s letter: serendipity. We don’t have a direct translation for that in Brazilian Portuguese, but I guess it summarizes all the hard work and luck that made it possible for WHERE WE GO FROM HERE to reach the US readers.
Do you have anything else to say to people dealing with HIV, whether it be directly or indirectly?
There’s a passage in my book when one of the characters says: “Fear is not a fifty-foot-tall monster I have to bow to” and that’s my motto for life. So that’s what I’d like to say: if you are currently living with HIV or have a relationship with someone who is positive, do not put fear above love. Know that you are entitled to have the best life you can; and when fear comes, remember that you can crush it with love.
Did you experience any challenges or drawbacks while writing this book? What were they? How did you overcome it?
As I said before, the research was a challenge because I really wanted to deliver the most accurate information possible. When it comes to the characters, Victor was the most challenging one to write—he’s the youngest, the most privileged and the one who has more to learn throughout the novel. He has his own journey to accept and understand what it means to be in a relationship with a HIV-positive person, and a lot of his prejudices and negative thoughts differ from my own thoughts and feelings about the subject, but he also expresses a lot of what I used to think in my youth. So I had to slip into his shoes for a moment, always having in mind that his growth was part of the process, even if I did not agree with most of his attitudes.
What was the best part or your favorite part in writing this story?
I had so much fun writing Eric and all his drag queen friends. I think that they spark a lot of fun scenes throughout the book. I’m also very happy with one of the side characters, Gabriel, Ian’s best friend, just because he is the kind of person who is willing to hop into his old car and drive 100 miles just to make sure his best friend is really okay. I have a lot of people like Gabriel in my life, so he reminds me of my own friends, and that’s a wonderful feeling.
Are you working on something new right now?
Yes! I just finished a new story and, while I’m waiting for answers to this one, I’m writing another draft during this social distancing time. I can’t talk too much about these stories yet, but it suffices to say that they are also contemporary and queer novels (and also set in Brazil).
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for us?
HERE THE WHOLE TIME by Vitor Martins: a sweet queer novel about a fat boy who must share his bedroom with his life-long crush for fifteen days. It is also a Brazilian novel, and one of my favourites because it tackles themes like fatphobia, body image and overall insecurities of growing up being fat and gay, all with a lot of humour and heart-warming moments.
LIKE A LOVE STORY, by Abdi Nazemian: this is one of the most beautiful novels I read in my life. It talks about the power of community for queer people, wonderfully portrays the mess that is being afraid of coming out, and it’s also a tribute to Madonna, to pop music in general and, specially, to love. And, the most important part, it’s set in New York during the Aids crisis and it shows us how young queer people dealt with this new and unknown world. It is just an incredible book.
