Wuthering Heights meets Afghanistan--?

“In their unsettling romance that crosses small town social lines as well as the oceans and continents between Vermont and Afghanistan, the lovers at the core of Abide with Me strip away all that is unnecessary as they seek the essence of true love: it may stumble, but it will always survive.”

                – Garth Stein, author of The Art of Racing in the Rain on ABIDE WITH ME

 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Okay, is this irresistible, or what?

Here’s how Sabin Willett’s editor describes his newest novel, ABIDE WITH ME: “In this novel inspired by Wuthering Heights, a small town bad boy forged by the fires of Afghanistan returns home, still burning with a romantic obsession nothing can quench.”

But Sabin Willett is not just a novelist, and not just an attorney. In 2005, with colleagues at his law firm, he began representing Uighur prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. They were neither terrorists nor enemies Willett explains, but “Muslim refugees from China taken by mistake in the fog of war following the Afghanistan invasion in 2001. They were held for years because they could not be returned to China, and no other country would take them.”

And in Guantanamo, he says, is where his new book was born. So—I wanted you to meet him!

 HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Tell us about the book!

 SABIN WILLETT: What happens when the boys we sent off to war come back? Not the college boys, not the Wall Street set -- the boys who lacked the chances, who went to Afghanistan for want of a better idea? What happens when a girl turns her back on the urgency of love, because the lover is not from the right world? And what if we throw these two questions together?

There is an old house in the town, a mansion in an old family for more than a hundred years. What is the strange pull and fascination of that house on the lovers? And what happens when this all happens in a small, gossipy town, where everyone knows everyone's business? That's Abide With Me.

HANK: What was the inspiration for writing it?

SABIN WILLETT: There were many. I wanted to write a serious love story—I had not done that before. Meeting young soldiers in Guantánamo triggered something in me, and some of the nights there found their way into episodes. The bowl of night, for example. The stars in Cuba are astonishing on a clear night, and I remember on a lonely night there being reminded of the first quatrain in Omar Khayyam—that in turn led me to picture a night in a mountain firebase, where a lonely soldier studies the stars. Williamstown, Massachusetts, suggested to me a look and feel of the Heights itself. Emma I created, but where creations like her come from, I can’t say.

HANK: More about your work at Guantanamo in a minute, okay? You’ve said you love Wuthering Heights—but tell us more about how that percolated into this book.

SABIN WILLETT: I am fascinated by old houses that are in families for generations. With walk-in closets, and back stairs, and sleep porches; with attics and towers and nooks and crannies; with old boxes on shelves in the closets, and in the boxes, old letters, handwritten -- the ink fading. The house has a history; it becomes a character in the story.

I found myself writing a love story of impossibility, at the center of which lay a house. And at some point I said, well, this seems familiar. Why not have Em's sisters be Anne and Charlotte? Why not have the boy's background be mysterious, argued about, never explained? And, well, one thing led to another.

HANK: There’s a level of..romance..that’s not like your mystery novels. Where did that come from?

SABIN WILLETT: There's nothing more urgent than war, unless it be an impossible desire. So I thought, it's high time to write about both.

HANK: On a different topic--What compels you to advocate for the Uighur prisoners at Guantánamo Bay?

SABIN WILLETT: I got into that case mainly because the idea of sanctioned torture was abhorrent to me, and the idea of a prison beyond law equally so. Once I met the clients, the injustice riveted me, and it became very personal.

HANK: If you could make one change to the way soldiers reenter civilian life after returning from war, what would it be?

SABIN WILLETT: I don’t have a good answer to this question. The transition to civilian life is too abrupt for most to manage, but I don’t know what would improve that other than a national resolve never to go to war except where there is an existential crisis. I think what bewilders many soldiers is the idea that their return is unremarked, just as their experience in the war was unimportant to the people back home. That may be the intolerable thing.

HANK: I love thinking about how your brain works—do you think of yourself as a lawyer, or author, or activist? How do you organize your life?

SABIN WILLETT: Well, when you figure out how my brain works, would you send me a memo? How do I think of myself? A little bit of all three, but mainly as the guy with the plates. Remember the old Ed Sullivan show? No, you are far too young to remember the old television variety show, with goofy Ed Sullivan introducing pre-adolescent Beatles, and other acts. One of his familiar ones was the guy with the plates. The guy had a row of rods. On top of the rods, plates. The plates were spinning.

So long as they were spinning, they wouldn't clatter and fall to the floor and smash But when they slowed down, they'd begin to wobble, and then to teeter, and then... So the guy with the plates would race along his row of rods, topping up spin, rescuing wobblers. Plate to plate, spin to spin.

 That's how I think of myself.

HANK: Too young to remember Ed Sullivan? Huh. Yeah, sure. In fact, I’ve described myself as a plate-spinner, too. So—questions for Sabin? And we’re giving away a copy of ABIDE WITH ME to a lucky commenter!

Comments

[Kristopher]

Thanks Hank and Sabin. Abide With Me sounds fascinating. And who doesn't love Wuthering Heights?

[Shelia]

"Abide With Me" sounds as if it will be a very intriguing read. I think most people have a soft spot for "Wuthering Heights."

[Kelli Jo Calvert]

Sounds like a wonderful read - and if Hank is suggesting it, it must be!!

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

OH, Kelli Jo, that is so lovely of you! Yes, I am in the midst of it now..and it's a real treat.

ANd Shelia, you are so right...why is that, do you thnk?Did we all first read it as teenagers?

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Yes, Kristopher, you're so right..I'm not sure I've ever met anyone who does anything but swoon when the book--or movie!--is mentioned!

[Shirley Woodard]

This sounds like a "must read".

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

Oh, Shirley, absolutely!

[Rhonda Lane]

Oh, my! This book sounds fantastic. I may have to go to my ereader and download ASAP. But what happened to the prisoners? I hope they're not still there?

[Vicki P]

Very intriguing storyline!

[Sabin Willett]

Hank --

Thanks so much for this post! Considering its author, this is high praise. I was just this weekend trying to figure out which of your many "Other Women" to be most concerned for...

From one plate spinner to another, much admiration --sw.

[Nancy bland]

Great interview! Sounds like a great read!!!

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

And the winner is...well, we still have a few hours to choose.

And tomorrow--another wonderful author!