READERS GUIDE

A Conversation with Menna van Praag

Random House Reader’s Circle: How did you become a published writer?

Menna van Praag: Just before I turned thirty, I wrote a little book called Men, Money, and Chocolate. I’d written numerous (unpublished) novels before that, but I had a special feeling about this one. It wasn’t a great work of literature, just a little fable, but it was true. I believed in it. I still didn’t fully believe in myself as a writer, but I believed in this book. So, full of confidence and excitement, I submitted it for publication . . . but it was rejected. So I self-­published. I went all over London, Oxford and Cambridge, bribing independent bookstores with my homemade flapjacks and begging them to sell my book. Eventually people started reading it and loving it. About a year later, when I’d sold nearly a thousand copies, I submitted it again and this time it was picked up. It was subsequently translated into twenty-­six languages. That was just the beginning. . . .

RHRC: Do you have a writing routine?

MVP: I don’t have a particular routine but write whenever I can. Before my son was born (three years ago), I’d often write for ten hours a day. Nowadays, if I get two hours in a row I consider myself lucky! I can write anywhere, but my favorite place is at my desk on a sunny day. I have a window that looks out onto my garden. Whenever I’m stuck for words, I go for a walk, and the next sentence will come to me soon enough. I adore notebooks and often scribble ideas, sentences and paragraphs down in them, but when it comes to writing the story, I always go to the computer.

RHRC: Where did the idea for The Dress Shop of Dreams come from?

MVP: I saw a TV spot about Cuban cigar rollers who pay a percentage of their wages to a reader who will read them stories while they work. They then name some of the cigars after their favorite tales. I thought how it would be if the reader had a magical voice, and I fell instantly in love with the character of the Night Reader.

RHRC: What do you love most about writing?

MVP: While I fall absolutely in love with my characters, losing myself in their stories (these are often as much a surprise to me as to anyone), most of all I love the words: the way a beautiful sentence feels on your tongue, the delightful surprise of a startling and lovely simile or metaphor. I simply love words.

RHRC: What are some of your favorite books and authors?

MVP: Magical realism has always been my favourite genre. I like to think there’s more to reality than our five senses show us. My favorite author, above all others, is probably Alice Hoffman. I love the magic in her tales, along with the acute realism of the worlds she creates. Other favorite magical-­realism authors include: Isabel Allende, Laura Esquivel, Sarah Addison Allen and Barbara O’Neal. Other favorite authors, who don’t write specifically in that genre, include: Erica Bauermeister, Maggie O’Farrell, Ann Patchett, Tracy Chevalier, Carey Wallace, Anita Shreve, Kate Morton, Anne Lamott, Anne Tyler, Neil Gaiman and Sue Monk Kidd. I’ve just finished The Age of Desire by Jennie Fields, which I found to be a beautiful book. I’m always on the look out for new authors, so if we share similar tastes and you have any recommendations, please get in touch!

RHRC: Did reading a particular book inspire you to want to be a writer?

MVP: As a child I was a typical bookworm, reading everything I could get my hands on—­aren’t all writers? The first book that had a significant impact on me was The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley. It opened up the idea of magic hiding within the mundane. The book that made me want to be a writer was The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. I read it as a young teenager, and it was so startling, so magnificent that it ignited within me a desire to write something like that. I didn’t believe I could (that came much, much later), but I desperately wanted to and was determined to try.

RHRC: What advice would you offer an aspiring writer?

MVP: Write all the time—­as often as you can—­read nearly as much as you write. And, if you want to get published, simply never, ever, ever, give up. It’s simply a matter of deciding how much you want it (it can take years, decades even—­it took me just over a decade), so determination is the most valuable trait you can employ. Oh, and if you’re just starting out and need a little help with inspiration, self-belief and all that, read The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I read that book at age nineteen—­I longed to be a writer, but I couldn’t write—­when I started reading it, suddenly, there was light and possibility and hope.

RHRC: Do you ever feel stuck?

MVP: I used to feel stuck all the time. In my twenties I was full of self-­doubt and could barely finish a first chapter. But, following years of attending inspirational seminars and writing workshops, I’m no longer a perfectionist, which, of course, makes finishing a book a lot easier! I now simply write because I love to express myself. I no longer care that it’s not Shakespeare. I don’t suffer from stuckness anymore, but if things aren’t flowing as they should be, then I stop for a while and go for a walk, read a book or watch a film instead. I take an inspirational break, and when I return to my desk, the words are usually there waiting for me.

RHRC: What do you hope to accomplish with your writing?

MVP: I once got an email that actually made me cry. It was from a woman who worked in an office job that she hated. She went to a bookshop over lunch, bought Men, Money, and Chocolate and read it under her desk that afternoon. Then she replicated the main character, Maya, and booked a fortnight off work. She wanted to be a singer, so she arranged time in a recording studio, made an album, and now she gigs all over the country. It’s incredible that something that I wrote actually helped someone transform her life. It’s a glorious thing to feel that you’re somehow being a little piece of goodness in the world; it’s a gift.

RHRC: What next?

MVP: I’ve just started running writing workshops in person and online. Teaching was a dream I had a long time ago, but it’s taken me until now to have the courage to do it! It’s a process I find extremely inspiring, both professionally and personally.

I love witnessing my students becoming better writers while we’re working together, and I’m certainly becoming a better writer myself in the process, which is a lovely, unexpected bonus.

My next book, The Witches of Cambridge, is about a secret society of women (and one man) who are all professors at the university and all witches. It’s the most fantastical book I’ve written so far, and I’m absolutely loving it. I’m also musing on an idea I had (about ten years ago) for a children’s book. I might be nearly ready to start writing that now. . . .

Questions and Topics for Discussion

1. Etta’s dresses give their wearers a magic push to go after their dreams. Have you ever had an item of clothing that especially inspired you to take action that you might not have otherwise? Or perhaps someone or something gave you a push to do something that you might not have initiated on your own?

2. Why do you think Etta’s magic doesn’t work on her?

3. Cora’s father tells her the chemical formula for love is “One proton of faith, three electrons of humility, a neutron of compassion and a bond of honesty.” Do you agree? Would you add anything to this equation?

4. Dylan’s letters bring comfort to many lonely fans of the Night Reader. Do you think that justifies his duplicity?

5. Another possible title for this book was The Night Reader, after Walt and his special secret. Does it change the story for you if you think of Walt as the main character? Which of the characters do you most identify with?

6. On page 142, Cora tells her grandmother that “all the great leaps are made when a scientist thinks of something she can’t yet prove, then dedicates her life to trying.” All of the characters in this book have to make leaps of faith to get something they want. What are some examples?

7. Do you think Etta made a mistake when she decided not to tell Sebastian about their daughter? Would you have made the same decision? Are secrets inherently wrong or sometimes justifiable?

8. Should Henry have fought for Francesca even when she told him she didn’t love him anymore? Do you think she was right to send him away?

9. At the start of the novel, Cora protects herself from pain by focusing on numbers and lab work. But all of the novel’s characters have ways of hiding from their feelings. What do you think these characters are afraid of? Do you ever notice yourself or others around you strategically avoiding difficult truths?

10. As he reads, Walt notices similarities between himself and the characters in his books: he identifies with Emma in Madame Bovary, Marianne from Sense and Sensibility, and Cyrano de Bergerac. Are there other great literary figures you would compare him to? What about Etta? Cora?

11. On page 37, Etta thinks: “It’s a great shame . . . that the heart cannot feel joy without also feeling pain, that it cannot know love without also knowing loss.” Do you agree that it’s true that we cannot love without also suffering?