The Inspiration Behind Strangers On A Bridge

I have lived in various locations in Switzerland on and off for more than thirty years. The Alps certainly have their fair share of beauty for inspirational settings for a novel. Think of Hemingway’s Farewell to Arms or DH Lawrence’s Women in Love where the reader’s imagination is transported to the mountains by the sheer dexterity of the authors’ prose.

Once I had decided to write a full-length work of fiction, however, my ambition was to explore the darker side of human nature to juxtapose the surrounding alpine beauty. I sought to write something under the umbrella of the crime genre: a work of ‘domestic noir’.

We relocated from the French part of Switzerland to the canton of Zug after our first son was born almost twenty years ago. As I spoke no German at first, we decided I would stay at home to look after our family, and in the little time I had between parenting tasks, I continued to write the fiction I had dabbled in for the past few years. The ambition to write a full-length novel coincided with my journey back to fitness after our second son was born.

The area near our home in central Switzerland is an athlete’s haven, and whenever I could take time off while my boys were growing up and starting school, I would run the trails around the Aegeri Valley where I live. I also needed a break from time at the keyboard where I wrote, and still write, short fiction. Exercise has always been a catalyst for inspiration for me, and I try to get out every day. One of my regular running trails passes under the giant arches and pillars of the old and new Lorzentöbelbrücke, or Tobel Bridges, both of which have sadly gained a reputation over the years as notorious suicide hotspots. Although I have never witnessed someone intending to jump – thank goodness – it was there that the concept for the novel Strangers on a Bridge was born.

During one of my runs through the Lorze Gorge, I imagined the horror of seeing someone above me on the bridge as I approached, contemplating a jump, and that was the moment the seed of the story germinated. In the novel, after the shocking start where Alice, an ex-pat wife and mother, stops a man called Manfred jumping from the Tobel Bridge, the novel takes on a slow-burn tension that sees Manfred becoming more obsessed with Alice, his saviour.

Combine this with the feeling of isolation that Alice feels as a result of being a foreigner in a close-knit Swiss community, and we have a woman who feels she might be going off the rails. Once I had decided to write about a stalker from the point of view of his victim, I needed to research the laws and police rules put in place for such behaviour in Switzerland. At the time of writing, I was shocked to discover that there were very few procedures to prevent or prosecute stalking behaviour.

Luckily in the years since I started the novel, the police force has been trained to better deal with these incidents. There are now also security measures in place on the Lorzentöbelbrücke to help reduce the numbers of suicides today. Glass panels have been erected and direct phones to the emergency services have been installed at each end of the upper bridge. These did not exist at the time I plotted my novel.

As the character Alice and I are both runners, readers might assume I based her on me. But the story is by no means autobiographical. Alice finds it difficult to integrate into her community, but I was extremely lucky not to have experienced this. I made a conscious effort to get to know my neighbours as soon as we settled, and took German courses at an official school in Zug. Even today, the villagers appreciate when I attempt to communicate with them in their local dialect.

In terms of the writing process, the manuscript went through several re-writes and edits over a number of years. At one point the novel took on a double time-line, with a parallel narrative running throughout, describing events before and after a significant event in the story (sorry, no spoilers!) A few beta-readers were concerned that the rising tension was broken with the interspersing of chapters in the present and the past, so I eventually chose a timeline running chronologically to the conclusion.

The first version of the novel terminated at the ‘significant event’ and I went on to write a sequel. But as all authors know, a tighter narrative requires the wielding of a virtual machete and I ended up combining the two novels. I cut huge chunks of description and backstory that had been impeding the pace. My editor at Harper Collins HQDigital then helped me hone the narrative. We decided to further cut some peripheral plot lines. I had put these in to try and justify the protagonist’s behaviour, but they had begun to detract from the main story. It is the most difficult part of the tough labour in the writer’s working day to sometimes see scenes that have taken weeks to develop slashed from the narrative in a matter of seconds. These scenes were simply extra ingredients that were never needed.

In the end, I realise it is imperative for a writer to have multiple trusted readers and a good editor to help tailor their novel’s narrative. Strangers on a Bridge is published on July 6th 2018, and I’m thrilled to bring it to crime suspense readers.

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Strangers on a Bridge is published digitally on July 6th by the Harper Collins imprint HQDigital and will be out in paperback on August 11th 2018.

To what lengths would you go to protect your family?

When Alice Reed goes on her regular morning jog in the peaceful Swiss Alps, she doesn’t expect to save a man from suicide. But she does. And it is her first mistake.

Adamant they have an instant connection, Manfred’s charming exterior grows darker and his obsession with Alice grows stronger.

In a country far from home, where the police don’t believe her, the locals don’t trust her, and even her husband questions the truth about Manfred, Alice has nowhere to turn.

Biography:

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‘Strangers on a Bridge’ was a finalist in the Exeter Novel Prize and long listed for the Bath Novel Award. Apart from writing novels, Louise also writes short stories and flash fiction, which have won prizes, placed on shortlists and been read out on BBC Radio. You can visit her website www.louisemangos.com with links to more of her short fiction, or connect with her on Facebook or Twitter @LouiseMangos. Louise lives on a Swiss Alp with her Kiwi husband and two sons. When she’s not writing you can find her in her kayak on the lake in summer or on the cross-country ski loipe in winter, or painting in her studio.

About STRANGERS ON A BRIDGE

She should never have saved him.

When Alice Reed goes on her regular morning jog in the peaceful Swiss Alps, she doesn’t expect to save a man from suicide. But she does. And it is her first mistake.

Adamant they have an instant connection, Manfred’s charming exterior grows darker and his obsession with Alice grows stronger.

In a country far from home, where the police don’t believe her, the locals don’t trust her and even her husband questions the truth about Manfred, Alice has nowhere to turn.

To what lengths will Alice go to protect herself and her family?

Perfect for fans of I See You, Friend Request and Apple Tree Yard.

Praise for Strangers on a Bridge
‘As well-plotted and high-anxiety-inducing as any Hitchcock flick. 5 stars.’

‘GREAT read, fast, with a number of twists and turns that you don’t see coming!’ Janice Lombardo

 

Tags: featured, fiction, women writers

Category: Contemporary Women Writers, On Writing