A Conversation with Rosie Walsh
Q: Where did the idea for Ghosted come from?
I’d been looking for a good book idea for a while. I wanted to write about a universal dilemma – an experience that almost all of us have had, but few of us have been able to navigate successfully. Then, one evening, I had dinner with a friend who’d just been ghosted. As she hypothesized the likely reasons for his disappearance (serious illness, a broken phone, death, even) I knew this was it.
I went home thinking about the number of times this had happened to me, and how dismaying my loss of emotional control had been each time. I knew I wasn’t the only person who’d reacted this way, but I realized that I didn’t know anyone who’d been ghosted for an acceptable reason. My real challenge, moving forward, would be to think up a reason for Eddie’s disappearance that Sarah, and my readers, could understand, maybe even forgive – but never guess.
Q: Did you do any special research for the book?
I repeatedly visited the rural valley where most of the book is set. I even camped wild there one night, without a tent, because I wanted to build as full a picture of the place as I could — even though it’s a place I know well. As a writer I spend a lot of time sitting in silence in rooms, alone, but this book was a very different experience for me. I filled notebook after notebook with reflections on the sounds and smells of that hidden valley; so much so that the countryside has almost become a character in the book.
Q: What is the best/worst story you’ve heard of someone being ghosted?
A close friend met a man when she was a postgraduate student in the north of England. They had a beautiful night together, and in the morning went for brunch. While they were eating, the restaurant caught fire and they got separated during the evacuation. She looked everywhere for him but couldn’t find him. She was heartbroken! Neither of them knew each other’s surnames, so she couldn’t find him online.
A few days later, she had a call from her postgraduate supervisor, who had extraordinary news. Apparently the man had spent the intervening days contacting every postgraduate research department in the area, trying to find her: he had left his details with a plea for her to get in touch. She couldn’t believe her luck. She started off by calling, but got his voicemail. Her texts received no reply. She called his landline a couple of days later, and sent him an email – nothing. She knew he most likely wasn’t dead – his messages were all delivered – but she still wonders if something terrible happened! Neither she—nor I—could believe that he would go to all that trouble, only to ghost her.
Q: Which authors do you like to read?
One of my favorite recent releases is a book called Little Big Love by Katy Regan. Zac, the ten year-old narrator, is the finest example of a child storyteller I’ve read since Harper Lee’s Scout Finch. He’s a painfully overweight boy, on a quest to find his absent father, and his story is both heartwrenching and heartwarming. I’ve also read some great Irish-born authors lately – Sally Rooney, Donal Ryan and Karl Geary – and I love everything Liane Moriarty writes. She is a genius.
Q: What has been the response to Ghosted?
I don’t read online reviews – my skin isn’t thick enough – but the feedback I’ve received via social media has been incredible. Writing a book is an uncertain and isolating experience, and it’s very hard to see your own work through the eyes of a reader. For this reason I’ve been overjoyed to hear from so many people who have loved it, who’ve had the sort of emotional journey I dreamed of when I wrote it. It’s particularly strange and wonderful to know that Sarah and Eddie’s story is being read in some of the further corners of the globe. I’m not sure I’ll ever quite believe that!
Q: Was there anything—either about the characters or their journeys—that surprised you while writing?
I had a challenging time working out how to end Sarah and Eddie’s story. I experimented with so many endings – deaths, happily ever afters, high dramas. Eventually though, as with every other part of my writing journey, I had to just trust my gut.
Q: What are you working on next?
I’m writing a story about a married couple whose lives are torn apart when one of them discovers that the other has been lying for twenty years. It weaves together a huge mystery, a terrible heartbreak and a very tender love story.
