Authors Interviewing Characters: Sarah Beth Durst

April 25, 2024 | By Women Writers Women Books | Reply More

Authors Interviewing Characters: Sarah Beth Durst

About THE LIES AMONG US

A haunting novel about sisterhood and grief, where difficult truths must contend with the corrosive power of unchecked lies.

After her mother dies, Hannah doesn’t know how to exist without her. Literally. In fact, Hannah’s not even certain that she does exist. No one seems to see or hear her, and she finds herself utterly alone. Grief-stricken and confused, her sense of self slowly slipping away, Hannah sets out to find new purpose in life — and answers about who (and what) she really is.

Hannah’s only remaining family is her older sister, Leah. Yet even Leah doesn’t seem to notice her. And while Hannah can see and hear her sister, she also sees beautiful and terrible things that don’t — or shouldn’t — exist. She learns there’s much more to this world than meets the eye and struggles to make sense of it all.

When Hannah sees Leah taking the same dangerous path that consumed their own mother — where lies supplant reality — she’s desperate to get through to her. But facing difficult truths is harder than it looks…

Sarah Beth Durst interviews Hannah Allen

SBD: Thanks so much for allowing me to interview you. I know this is a difficult time in your life.

Hannah: If you were able to hear me, there’s so much I would say.

SBD: Then let’s start there. What do you wish you could say that, until now, no one has heard?

Hannah: Well, I’d start with my sister…

SBD: Your older sister, Leah, correct?

Hannah: Wait. You… can hear me?

SBD: Yes, of course. I’m your author.

Hannah: No one has ever been able to hear me. It doesn’t matter how badly I’ve wanted them to, how loudly I’ve yelled, how hard I’ve tried to reach them — you can hear me?

SBD: I created you.

Hannah: You didn’t. That was my mother.

SBD: Well, yes, but —

Hannah: I was the one who found her, the day she died. The TV was blaring, because she liked the sound to wash out the silence after Leah left. It was tuned to some political show, and the pundits were shouting at one another, their ugliness seeping out of the television like a thick sludge that oozed across the room. It was another whole day before anyone else found her, but I stayed with her, so she wouldn’t be alone, even though she couldn’t hear me. I would have stayed with her forever. But I couldn’t. She went where I couldn’t follow.

SBD: I’m so sorry for your loss.

Hannah: Thank you. I wanted to hear those words so badly at her funeral, but they were never spoken to me. Only to Leah, who didn’t want to hear them. I don’t know how we turned out so very different. It’s funny, isn’t it — the way two people can experience the same thing in two entirely different ways. At the very least, we should have been able to go through our mother’s loss together, but… I suppose that wasn’t possible.

SBD: What is it like for your own sister… I’m sorry, but I don’t know how to phrase this question gently…

Hannah: You want to ask what it’s like for your own sister to deny your existence? It hurts. But it isn’t really her fault. No one has ever been able to see me or hear me. In every tangible way, to Leah, to the world, I am not real. But still, my impact on her life has been very real. Mother believed in me. She loved me with all her heart, and I loved — love — her with all of mine. I don’t know what to do now that she’s gone.

SBD: Would it help if I told you what you do next?

Hannah: I… think I have to find that out for myself.

SBD: That’s very mature of you. Most of my characters clamor for spoilers.

Hannah: I don’t think it would mean as much if you told me. I need to see for myself what happens next and who I will be… if I will be.

SBD: I think that’s true. I would like to ask you, though, what it’s like on a day-to-day basis to exist in the world but not be able to interact with it?

Hannah: I can’t interact with anything real, but there’s a lot that exists that isn’t real, at least not in the way you mean. Mother’s house, for example… to Leah, to the world, it looks like a drab one-story house with peeling paint and an unmowed yard full of junk and weeds. But when I look at it, I see a cheerful two-story yellow house with a porch swing and azalea bushes blooming with pink flowers. Sometimes there are roses. I grew up in the house as it should have been. For twenty-four years, I have lived within the beauty of Mother’s good intentions. Now, though…

SBD: You lost your home when you lost your mother, didn’t you?

Hannah: Not only that, but I lost my future. Without her, I am unmoored. Who am I? Why am I?

SBD: I’m so very sorry.

Hannah: You should be. You wrote me.

SBD: Perhaps you’ll find your way…

Hannah: I hope so. I won’t give up. And I won’t stop trying. I may have lost my mother, but I still have a sister… If there’s a way to reach her, I’ll find it. I promise.

SBD: Good luck, Hannah.

BUY HERE

—

Sarah Beth Durst is the author of over twenty-five books for adults, teens, and kids, including The Bone Maker, The Lake House, and Spark. She won an American Library Association Alex Award and a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award and has been a finalist for the Andre Norton Nebula Award three times. Several of her books have been optioned for film/television, including Drink, Slay, Love, which was made into a TV movie and was a question on Jeopardy! Sarah is a graduate of Princeton University and lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband, her two children, and her ill-mannered cat.