Here’s part of an old interview Maria did with Irish journalist Sinead Gleeson, around the time that How the light gets in was published in the UK and Ireland
Why did you pick a teenage girl as the protagonist in this novel?
I didn’t set out to write about a teenage girl, it was mostly an accident. Lou started out as a male character and went through several incarnations. I had written a short story called ‘In a Prison for Wayward Exchange Students’ and the main character was a boy. Lou then grew out of that story because I wanted to tell the story of one of the exchange students and how he or she ended up in this prison.
In a recent interview you said that you didn’t remember a lot about your teenage years, is the book an attempt to retrieve some of those memories?
It’s quite paradoxical that I, of all people, should have written a book with a teenage protagonist. Many people presume that because I’ve written a book about a teenager that my own teenage memories must be vivid. On the contrary, I can’t recall in any detail a single episode from my teens - obviously I can remember big, or significant events - but in terms of continuity and detail, I have quite patchy memories. The book is, perhaps, my way of recreating the time in my life that’s most fuzzy for me. It’s the same with childhood, which is something else I write about. I’m interested in a child’s voice, but not in a literal way; in an almost surreal, peculiar way.
To read the full interview you can click here
