Irish author Liz Nugent on her new thriller ‘Strange Sally Diamond’

The novel, which borrows themes from the Josef Fritzl abuse case, can be described as ‘domestic noir’, says the author

Updated - January 23, 2024 10:02 am IST

Author Liz Nugent

Author Liz Nugent | Photo Credit: Ruth Connolly

Sally Diamond, the protagonist of Liz Nugent’s latest chiller, Strange Sally Diamond, was inspired by Boo Radley from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. “Boo was a recluse who did not come out of his house,” says Nugent over a call from Dublin, Ireland. “There are some hints and rumours that he stabbed his father in the leg and his father locked him in the house because of that.”

Wondering what would cause somebody to retreat from life so much and the story behind the stabbing gave Nugent, 56, the kernel of the idea for Strange Sally Diamond. The book has a stunning opening, with Sally putting her father in the trash when he dies. “I open each book in the aftermath of something big happening. In Strange Sally Diamond, she brings him his cup of tea one morning and finds him dead in bed. It is how she reacts to that situation that dictates the rest of the book,” says Nugent.

Preferring British novelist Julia Crouch’s term, ‘domestic noir’, to describe her books, Nugent says she does not pick a genre when writing. “Everybody tells me I’m a literary crime novelist. I don’t mind what my books are called, as long as people read them. Domestic noir is a good description because my novels are about psychological things that happen within the family or home.”

The ‘strange’ in the title, says Nugent, is for how the local people see the protagonist. “They don’t have a label for her. She’s not autistic or Asperger’s or neuro-divergent, although she has symptoms of all of those things, she’s never been diagnosed.” Of all the characters she has written, Nugent says Sally is her favourite. “I’ve written a lot of sociopaths and psychopaths (laughs). Being in Sally’s head was quite liberating. Sally is a recluse, avoids company and doesn’t like noise or crowds. She speaks her mind when she does speak, which isn’t often.”

‘I wanted Sally to be strange’

As far as research goes, Liz candidly admits to not doing any. “I didn’t read any books about cases like the Josef Fritzl case or watch documentaries, though I always wondered about what happened to the children who are born of such situations. In cases where the mothers were rescued, did the children stay with their mothers? Were the mothers able to recover sufficiently to be able care for them? I decided in Sally’s case that her mother wouldn’t because she was so brutalised.”

Though Strange Sally Diamond brings to mind the Fritzl case, Nugent says, “There has never been a case like this in Ireland that we know of and I hope there never is. When those stories came up, I read about it in the newspapers like everybody else.” Though she did not go back to them, they were definitely in her head, Nugent says. “It was only after I started writing Strange Sally Diamond that I realised this was her background. I didn’t plot this book at all. I wanted Sally to be strange and then I realised that I wanted a darker reason for her differences than a straightforward diagnosis of autism or Asperger’s.”

The way people react to Sally’s oddness and her reactions to it are both sad and funny. “If there’s one thing I want people to take away from this book, it is tolerance,” says Nugent. “When I was in school, there were certainly people in my class, who we would have just said were a bit odd. We didn’t have terms like we have now. Sometimes they would be picked on and bullied.”

At the age of six, Nugent suffered a brain injury which left her with dystonia — a neurological movement disorder. “I have a physical disability and sometimes I was picked on and bullied in school. I know what that feels like. And so I’ve put many people who are different in some way, whether it’s because of their colour, sexuality, age or social status, in the book,” she says.

Novel no.6 is next on the agenda, Nugent says. “I’m working very slowly on it. I have blocked off January and February, and hopefully, the rest of the year, I’ll be doing far less festivals and international travel, though I would like to come to India some time.”

mini.chhibber@thehindu.co.in

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