John Boyne: On A Ladder To The Sky and entering a fertile writing period

Now onto his 11th novel – his glittering CV also boasts extensive journalistic ouput and several YA books – John Boyne has finally reached a comfortable stage in his writing career.

“I remember Kazuo Ishiguro saying that between the age of 40 and 60 is the best time in a writer’s life,” he smiles. “I’m 47 now and I do feel full of energy and enthusiasm. The last few books are all kind of different and, I hope, interesting. I feel like I’m in a good place creatively at the moment.”

Boyne’s latest novel centres on an area that he’s all-too-familiar with – that of the rocky road to publishing. A Ladder To The Sky follows a young Yorkshire man, Maurice Swift, whose charm, good looks and networking abilities allow him to attach himself to various prominent, and susceptible, authors in order to further his own career. His tactics gradually veer from emotionally exploitative to downright criminal as the novel progresses.

Given that he’s published enough novels to know the ins and outs, is this book reflective of the literary world as John knows it? Is there a dark side to literary ambition?

“I’m not really sure,” he considers. “I know that I’ve certainly had a desperation to get published. I remember what it was like in my twenties, my ambition was always to get published before I was 30, and I published my first novel when I was 29. I can remember being 24, 25, 26 and being really desperate for that deal.

“Now I wouldn’t have gone to the extremes that Maurice goes to to get it, but the longing for it was so important to me. It’s not unusual that people feel a great ambition – especially in an artistic career whether it be books, music or acting – and a strong need to express themselves in the world, and for their voices to be heard. If no one is listening then that can get very frustrating.”

Has John met characters like Maurice, who would stop at nothing to get ahead?

“Oh, yeah. I don’t think I’ve met any writers that have committed those types of crimes, but I’ve certainly seen people use other writers to get ahead. The back-biting, the little rivalries and feuds, the writing of bad reviews just because you don’t like someone – I’ve seen that.”

The novel also tackles the idea of ownership when it comes to an individual’s stories and memories. In the opening section, a famed German novelist recounts his tacit complicity during the Nazi era, which Maurice then uses for his own bestselling novel. It raises the question – if one person shares an experience with another, is it wrong to write about it?

“That was something I was interested in because I’m not entirely sure what the answer is,” says John. “If two people share an experience, and it’s both of their experiences, who owns those stories? In the book, when Eric tells Morris his story, Eric hasn’t written about it and he’s telling the story aloud. Is he then giving it to the world? Is it his anymore?

“The idea of ownership, I think, is until one person commits those words to a page, it’s a free-for-all. It’s why when you ask writers what they’re working on they’ll say, ‘Oh a little something, a book...’ or ‘Seeing where it’s going.’ They don’t tend to share too many details.”

Is there a lot of back-biting in the Irish literary sphere?

“I don’t think it’s specifically Irish,” replies John. “Most of the older Irish writers are wonderful, nice people. My experience is that the more successful a writer is, the nicer they are because they don’t have a chip on their shoulder and they’re secure in themselves. Maybe that’s the same in any industry, I don’t know. Maybe once you’re established you’ve got nothing to prove to anybody.”

On a related note, there’s an argument that Irish writers have a tendency to pull their punches when it comes to criticising other scribes. As a reviewer himself, does John have any thoughts on that?

“That can be the case,” he agrees. “I review books for The Irish Times and for the most part I tend to avoid Irish novels, because you can’t win – if you genuinely like it and you give it a good review, you’re accused of back-slapping, and if you genuinely don’t like it and you give it a bad review, you’ll be run out of town. So it’s a lose-lose situation.”

But in general it does seem like there’s a new wave of amazing Irish authors.

“Yeah, there’s a new wave of very good writers. Although I think there’s a tendency to overpraise too quickly. You sort of need to have four or five novels before we start throwing the word ‘genius’ around. It becomes a bit self-fulfilling because Irish publications are always looking for new writers to capitalise on the success of those who were star-struck the last five or six years. Often they’re just fine and we’re saying they’re the greatest thing since War And Peace. I think we need to be more circumspect in our lavish praise.”

Having released his incredible tenth novel, The Heart’s Invisible Furies, just a year before A Ladder To The Sky, does John already have plans for his next tome?

“I haven’t published a book for young readers in about five years and I’m going to have one in April. I’ve been working on that for the past year and I’ve just been doing the final bits of it. After that I’ve got two films and TV projects in production. Ridley Scott bought The Heart’s Invisible Furies for a 10-part TV show and Dominic Cook – who directed On Chesil Beach – is going to direct that. I also just sold the film rights to A Ladder In The Sky to the people who made the Patrick Melrose shows. Then I’ll be working on another adult book as well. So I’ve always got eyes on the next project!”
A Ladder To The Sky is out now, via Penguin.