Ane Riel was born on September 26, 1971 in Aarhus. Her father is a lawyer and her mother, Mette Brahm Lauritsen, is a children's book writer and illustrator. She graduated from Marselisborg Gymnasium in 1990 and started studying art history at Aarhus University the following year. In addition to her studies in Aarhus, she developed a great interest in jazz and was often found at the local jazz club Jazzbar Bent J. In 1996 she moved to Copenhagen with the ambition to study illustration at the Danish Design School. Instead, she worked at the Storm P. Museum, dedicated to the life and work of Robert Storm Petersen (1882-1949), a Danish artist known for his comics and satirical works. Storm P. also provided the subject for Riel's third children's book. When Riel did not write children's books, she pursued her love of music: going to as many concerts as possible, immersing herself in the Copenhagen jazz scene, joining the board of The Ben Webster Foundation and traveling with her husband Alex Riel, one of the most important and influential jazz drummers in Europe.
Her book Hars (in Dutch! Harpik/Resin) was published last year, which many readers call impressive and oppressive. She answered our questions.
1. At a certain moment you made the leap from educational
and children's books to adult fiction. Why did you make that transition and how
did you like it?
Initially it felt very natural to me to
work with children's books since I grew up with a mother who is a childrens'
book illustrator. In fact I never even thought about writing fiction for adults
untill it happened – almost by coincidence – when I was around 40. A friend persuaded
me to write a short story for at competition, and so I did that. I was
surprised how much I enjoyed it, you could say I felt more free writing for
adults since I didn't have to consider reading level, age and so on. Then someone
suggested that I wrote a fiction novel and I thought: Well, why not!
I started on the novel right away
without having a clue what I was doing and how the story would turn out. I simply
improvised my way through, getting ideas and researching as I went along. I had
so much fun doing it!
2. Where do you get your inspiration?
From everywhere really. I love to spend
time in our local wood, it's very inspiring for me to be around trees. It was
out there I got the idea of letting resin play a part in Resin. I also like to observe other people, their body language, voices,
interactions etc. I get a lot of ideas for characters that way. Or I may
stumble across an interesting article that makes me curious about something. My
third novel Beast (that will be
published as Beest in The Netherlands
soon) was inspired by an article I read about a German boy who was born
extraordinarily muscular in 2004.
As for Resin the idea for that book came to me in a very peculiar way, almost
like in a dream: This little girl's voice popped up in my head one night while
I was trying to fall asleep. She talked about how her father had killed her
grandmother and how he kept a lot of stuff in their house etc. I got up at
wrote down a couple of pages in the middle of the night. Then when I looked at
it the next morning I realised that this would be the intro for my next book. I
had never planned on writing a story about hoarding or anything like that. The
idea really just came out of nowhere!
3. Resin wasn't published as thriler but won many specific
awards for thrillers. How surprised were you when you won your first award?
It was surreal. The thing was that my debut
novel, The Butcher of Liseleje, had won
an award for best crime novel debut. That came as quite a surprise since it was
written and published as a fiction novel! Then I wrote my second novel, Resin, which I never considered a crime
novel/thriller either. Actually I thought of it as been even further away from the genre than the
first one. That one too was published as a fiction novel (or literary fiction)
in Denmark.
So as you can imagine I could hardly
believe it when Resin won the award
for best Danish crime novel of the year, soon followed by the Glass Key etc. Because
of these awards Resin has been labelled
as a 'thriller' in some countries, but in Denmark it's still called a fiction
novel like it was intended to be.
4. You can have a discussion about whether or not a book is
a thriller, but by the description of your book, it looks like it needs a
different genre. What genre did you think you should get abroad? What is a
thriller for you?
I've always felt it's a mistake to
label Resin as a thriller (although I
understand why some publishers choose to do that). It's all about expectations.
I'd rather that you are surprised by the element of suspense in a fiction novel
than disappointed that the story doesn't live up to your ideas of what a
thriller or crime novel is. Luckily it's turned out that there are thriller
readers out there that like Resin for
whatever it is, and I'm very grateful for that. :) But still!
I guess I would prefer the book to be
called a fiction novel or literary fiction since that is a broad definition
that doesn't exclude an element of suspense or even murder for that matter. But
it doesn't require it either!
If you call a book a 'thriller' I think
anyone are in their right to expect a
strong element of suspense in it. Also you may expect at focus on the plot
which was really not my main focus in Resin.
I was focusing on understanding and depicting these characters and their
struggles, not least their inner struggles. And well, then it somehow got a bit
suspenseful, lol. But that part was more like an extra spice that added itself
to the story along the way.
I don't know, maybe we need a
definition of books that are somewhere in between literary fiction and the thriller/crime
genre. Or maybe we just need to get rid of that constant labelling. It may be a
helpful guide sometimes but it's also very limiting. I often hear people claiming
that they "only read crime
novels" and others claiming that "they never read crime novels". I bet that both parties miss out on
a lot of great books and that's really sad.
5. In our reader group for thrillers, your book is praised
every time for its exceptionally intense story. How did it feel for you to
write such a story?
That's nice to hear, thanks! It felt
very intense to write it. It's essential to me that I sympathize with my
characters, no matter how they act. And so I try to put myself in their place, you
could even say I try to "become" them and feel what they are feeling.
I'm not exactly a 'hoarder' myself ... or a man for that matter ... or a
murderer (yet), so to depict a complicated character like Jens Haarder as sympathetic
and credible as possible was quite a challenge. Sometimes I pushed myself to
the limit, and even beyond it, writing specific scenes that I felt very
uncomfortable with. There are parts that I wrote with tears in my eyes. But
I've also giggled and even laughed out loud several times. I'm aware, though,
that not everybody pick up the humour in there.
6. You probably did the necessary research for your books.
What is the oddest you've ever searched or found for your books?
That's hard to say. There's been so
much and you only use a fraction of all the research you do. With Resin I researched a lot on 'hoarding'
and that led me to some weird examples from the real world. Take the famed Collyer
brothers in New York, their (true) hoarding story is insane! I also watched a
documentary about a British family planning the mummification of their
terminally ill husband/father a few years back. Eventually he died and they actually
mummified him. Sounds horrible but in a way it was a beautiful story about
holding on to your loved ones. And letting go.
7. After writing a book with so many awards, how do you
start writing a new book? Does it provide you extra pressure, or are you able
to move that aside while writing?
I did take a while for me to start on
the third one (Beast) because so much
kept happening with Resin. And yes,
expectations to your next book certainly feels like pressure while at the same
time you're so grateful people trust in you. You really don't want to
disappoint anyone, but you also know that you need to forget about that. It's a
very complex thing.
Anyway, I eventually wrote a very different
kind of book. When something is a succes you may be tempted to try to
"copy" that, but copying a succes rarely goes well so I wanted to try
out something else. Also, I'm still new in this field and I need to develop my
writing skills by challenging myself with different formats etc. I like the
idea that you can 'recognize' the author in the writing, but at the same time I
wouldn't like to be labelled as someone who writes certain stories in a certain
way within a specific genre. That thought makes me claustrophobic! That's also very
much why I reject to the thriller/crime writer label.
It certainly would be a huge mistake to
label Beast as a thriller as it's
nowhere near that (although someone gets killed ... quite a few really!). It's
more of an epic novel, partly inspired by the muscular German boy I mentioned
earlier and partly by John Steinbeck's authorship. Like Resin it's been translated into Dutch by the brilliant Kor de
Vries.
I've just started writing my fouth
novel, and again I looks like it's going to be different from the other three.
8. Your book appeared in more than twenty countries. Do you
have copies of them all and which one do you find the most exceptional?
Yes, it's been sold to 26 countries but
hasn't yet been published in all of them. I probably have 12 of them so far.
The covers are very different, and you wouldn't think it was the same book if
you compare them. The most exceptional is probaly the Korean one because it's
so simple and poetic. It looks like crumbled white paper with only a few Korean
signs on it. It's really beautiful.
9. Are you a collector of certain objects, without being as
obsessive as in your book?
No, I'm not collecting anything in
particular. I like to be surrounded by books, art, nice furniture and so on.
But I prefer to keep it tidy. In fact I wouldn't survive an hour in Jens
Haarder's home, so it really was a challenge to write that book, lol.
10. How does a typical writing day look for you?
It depends on where I am in the writing
process and how much office work I have to do. But usually I get up quite early
and do my morning work-out. I also take time to read literature while I have my
breakfast. It's very motivating to start your day like that with food for body
and soul. If there's time for a walk sometime during the day that is just
perfect. I prefer to write/do research in the morning and early afternoon and
push office work for later if possible. Of course sometimes I spend the evening
and night working, especially up to a deadline – or if I'm in a productive writing
flow and just can't stop!
11. I understood that you live together with a famous
drummer. Can you write while he practices?
Haha, it may sound strange but we have
a very silent home in spite of the fact that we have two drum sets in the
living room and we both love music. Alex has been a pro for more than 60 years
and he rarely has to practise so that's really no problem.
12. What do you love to do the most when you're not writing?
Reading of course. And spending time in
the wood. Or with friends. Preferably in a bar! Other than that I've been a
passionate jazz fan for 30 years so I go to concerts every now and then.
13. Which books of other authors are in your favorite's list
and would you recommend to us?
My all time favourite book is the incredibly
charming My Family and Other Animals
by Gerald Durrell. Other favourites would be: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. East of Eden by John Steinbeck. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. Seven Gothic Tales by Karen Blixen. To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee. Crime and Punishment by Fjodor
Dostojevskij ... well, the list goes on and on.
14. Finally: you studied art history once and worked in a
museum. Did you ever regret never finishing those studies? What artist - and his work - should
we look up?
No regrets. But I'm happy I studied
because that was how I got to publish my first educational book.
What artist should you look up? Well, I
adore Rembrandt but I guess you know him already! :D If you want to check out a
contemporary Danish artist who is known for his really grotesque works you
should look up Michael Kvium. I must warn you, for most of his paintings are
extremely morbid – and rarely pretty in the traditional sense – but they also
contain a lot of symbolism, wisdom and humour. I'm quite fascinated by that!
For other news:
All photocredits to Laerke Posselt
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