Larissa Pham

Yes.

Discipline is a novel that follows Christine, who is herself a writer on tour for her debut novel.

She's written a revenge fantasy inspired by this real life entanglement with her former mentor, which ultimately derailed her promising painting practice.

And while she's on the road, the villain of her book,

reaches out to let her know he's read it.

And that reconnection ultimately draws Christine to Maine, where she confronts her old mentor and she's forced to consider this question, which I think is really the animating question of the book.

What do we do with the people who have harmed us?

I really wanted to begin the book in a liminal space.

I wanted Christine to be embarking on this journey that she couldn't really turn back from.

It seemed important to almost like throw her in the deep end.

And

An acquaintance of mine had gone through a very similar luggage mix-up, which I didn't even think was possible, but it is.

And that just seemed like such a wonderful way to get things going on the page, to give her a problem to solve in the very beginning of the book.

And I think it says something about Christine's character, too, that she really just goes for it.

She's like, I am going to find this person, and I am going to get my luggage.

It's funny.

I love a meta narrative.

And when I was writing this book, I was really enjoying the act of being a writer, writing about another writer, working on a book.

But I will say with book tour, it's almost become like a little too meta.

Like I'm like, I didn't anticipate this actually.