I start with plot and then I have to figure out the kind of character that’s going to be the most susceptible to that plot. I think a lot of writers start with character and then, of course, the challenge is going to be figuring out what they’re going to get up to. Can you talk about why that process works for you? In other interviews, I’ve heard you talk about how you reverse engineer your writing process by coming up with the plot first, and then figuring out the perfect characters to fit into that story. The New York Times Book Review hailed it as “a spellbinding work” and The Boston Globe called it “an irresistible literary page-turner.” Makkai spoke with us about creating the perfect hero for her story, what she had to leave out of her novel, and singing gorilla telegrams.

I Have Some Questions For You marks Rebecca Makkai’s first book since her acclaimed The Great Believers, and her new work has received equally rapturous reviews. What follows is a suspenseful and disorienting reckoning with the past, where Bodie reconnects with former classmates, many of whom have their own reasons to deeply resist reexamining their high school years.

Two of her students begin investigating the now twenty-year-old murder, and their research leads Bodie to suspect that the wrong man might have been convicted. Yet when her high school, Granby, invites her to return to teach a two week course on podcasting, Bodie’s forced to reexamine her teenage years from an adult perspective. As a teenager, Bodie had to navigate a deeply dysfunctional family, four years feeling like an outsider at a prestigious boarding school, and the shocking murder of her former roommate her senior year. Now a film professor and host of a popular podcast, Bodie Kane has largely managed to move past the events of her tumultuous adolescence.

The great believers by rebecca makkai