Simple Recipes (22 page)

Why did you choose “Simple Recipes” as the title piece?

It sort of chose itself. It was the first story I wrote for this collection and I think a lot of the questions contained within
it recur and are expanded in other stories. That story felt like a true starting point.

The underlying theme in this work seems to be a longing for the impossible. Are there any reasons for this?

Maybe that in order to change the world, you have to long for something better, something more equitable. This longing, this
thinking about what we long for, might help steer us toward that kind of world.

Where do you hope your writing takes you next?

I’m working on a novel now that is set partly in British North Borneo during and after the Second World War. Memory and war
have always fascinated me, and I hope with this book that I can say something true and meaningful for my generation and also
the one that came before, who experienced that war and so many others.

The complete text of this interview can be found at
www.FictionAddiction.net
. Reprinted with permission.

1.Compare the relationships between the fathers and daughters depicted in the stories “Simple Recipes,” “Four Days from Oregon,”
and “House.” How are they similar and how are they different in each story?

2.In “Four Days from Oregon,” Irene chooses to take her three young daughters and leave her husband to begin a life with another
man. How does the narrator’s view of this decision change over the course of the story? What do you think of Irene’s decision
and the way she carries it out?

3.The narrator of “Dispatch” does not leave her husband, even after receiving proof that he loves another woman. How do you
account for her choice? How do you see their relationship evolving from the point that the story leaves off?

4.In “Alchemy,” how does the narrator’s view of her own sexuality develop over the course ofthe story? How does her relationship
with her friend Paula influence it?

5.After Paula tells Miriam the truth about her father’s abuse, the narrator of “Alchemy” accepts a ride home from a stranger.
She says, “I opened the passenger door and thought, this is what it all comes to” (
page 71
). What does she mean by this? Why
does she take such a risk?

6.What role do brothers and sisters play in one another’s lives in these stories? In “Simple Recipes,” “Four Days from Oregon,”
and “House,” how do the choices of the adults in their lives affect the bonds between siblings?

7.In “Bullet Train” we meet Harold and Thea both in their early lives and as adults. In what way does what we learn about
their past inform the rest of the story?

8. Harold and Thea in “Bullet Train” are one of the few happy couples in this collection. What distinguishes their relationship
from many of the other relationships depicted in these stories?

9. In “Bullet Train,” Harold doesn’t try to stop Josephine from running away, even though he thinks it’s going to break her
mother’s heart (
page 154
). Why doesn’t he interfere? Is he right not to?

10. In “A Map of the City,” how is Miriam’s marriage affected by her relationship with her parents? Why does she tell Will
so little about her family?

11. At the beginning of “A Map of the City,” Miriam and her father seem to be very close. Yet she reveals that “my father
would often say that I had ruined his life” (
page 165
). How does this seeming contradiction inform their later relationship?
How does Miriam’s view of her father change as she grows up?

The Evidence Against Her

A novel by Robb Forman Dew

“A gorgeous, important book…. Dew’s characters are fiercely imagined, fiercely alive on the page.”

— Beth Kephart,
Chicago Tribune

“At the book’s end… there is that tremendous satisfaction that only this multigenerational kind of story can give. Robb Forman
Dew has a powerful way with prose. Her language is lush and beautiful.”

— Joanna Rose,
Portland Oregonian

House of Women

A novel by Lynn Freed

“Irresistible…. An unusual and unusually satisfying novel.”

— Kathryn Harrison,
New York Times Book Review

“House of Women
is surprising and inevitable, often in the same sentence. It illuminates and, at the same time, deepens the human mystery.
I don’t ask for more from a book.”

— Michael Cunningham, author of
The Hours

The Gospel of Judas

A novel by Simon Mawer

“A superior novel…. A noteworthy achievement…. An intellectual thriller of uncommon substance.”

— Chauncey Mabe,
Boston Globe

“Mawer’s prose is admirably lyrical, playful, and precise. His greatest strength, however, is in crafting probing, puzzlelike
narratives that yield compelling dramas of the mind and heart.”

— Michael Upchurch,
Atlantic Monthly

Martin Sloane

A novel by Michael Redhill

“A striking first novel…. Reading
Martin Sloane
made me feel melancholic, hopeful, amused, energized, enlightened, unnerved, touched, and finally grateful that occasionally
a writer comes along who gets real life just right.”

— Bliss Broyard,
New York Times Book Review

“A
deeply moving first novel that reveals human truths with grace and humor. It is a book of constant surprises.”

— Michael Ondaatje

Sea Glass

A novel by Anita Shreve

“A helluva read…. Shreve simply has the Gift — the ability to hook you from the first page, draw you in and pull you along,
and not let go until the final
word!’

— Zofia Smardz,
Washington Post Book World

“Shreve’s four-hankie plots are pure silk, and her characters are so real you can feel them sitting next to you on the couch.”

— Michelle Vellucci,
People

All the Finest Girls

A novel by Alexandra Styron

“An impressive, highly charged novel about a virtually taboo subject — nannying — displaying keen insight into the burdens
of inheritance in its many forms: money, love, creative temperament.”

— Benjamin Anastas,
New York Observer

“Extremely moving and powerful.”

— Heller McAlpin,
Washington Post Book World

“Wise and tender tales…. Thien weaves dark magic.” —
LISA SHEA, ELLE

THE STORIES IN THIS STUNNING, PRIZEWINNING DEBUT COLLECTION
chart the uneven progress of love and tay bare the heartbreaking truths at the core of our closest bonds. Telling of subtle
betrayals and sudden departures, legacies that cannot be escaped and dreams that will never be realized, these spare, haunting
tales uncannily capture who we are, how we live, why we feel and act as we do—as mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers,
daughters and sons—and in so doing cast brilliant fresh light on family life today.

“The trajectories of Thien’s stories are unpredictable; though her characters dream of following simple recipes, they are
themselves undeniably original creations.”—Janice P. Nimura,
New York Times Book Review

“Thien’s portraits of these painful, guilt-ridden, love-drenched relationships are remarkably rich.” —Donna Rifkind,
Baltimore Sun

“A dazzling debut.” —
Vogue

“Thien’s graceful navigation of complex and varying depths of emotion and thought infuses sadness with light and beauty.”—Sarah
Gianelli,
Portland Oregonian

“This is surely the debut of a splendid writer. I am astonished by the clarity and ease of the writing, and a kind of emotional
purity.”—Alice Munro

Madeleine Thien is the Canadian-born daughter of Malaysian-Chinese immigrants. She holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from
the University of British Columbia. She lives in Vancouver.