Will Rycroft

Absolutely.

Ji Young, a bookseller called Lara in Plymouth, said that whilst they were aware of the historical weight in your book from reading the synopsis, they were wholly unprepared for the emotional depth that it would bring and how long it would linger in their mind after they turned the last page.

I will hold my hands up and say that I was wholly unaware of the sort of story of the comfort women, these women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese armed forces.

Is it something that you were always aware of?

And I suppose what was the driving force for wanting, you mentioned about how still today people try to hide that story.

Was that the fire, I suppose, to kind of make sure that the story was told?

I really love this idea that fiction can be the place where you can learn the truth about something, and certainly the truth of the experience and the emotion.

Stephanie, again, I'm going to have to hold my hand up and say that my knowledge of Catholic theology is very, very poor.

But before I want to get into that aspect of the book, I want again to read a bookseller's comment.

Keira in Northampton said, I fell completely in love with the characters and was really touched to find out that the book was inspired by the author's grandparents' relationship.

And I wondered if you would mind sharing a little bit about how I suppose you discovered that aspect of your grandparents' story and then how you go about sort of fictionalising that or making it work in a piece of fiction.

We're going to go through some of the sort of the darker aspects of some of these books and then we're going to come out into the light hopefully.

I'm going to begin by coming back to you Tara.

Rose in Weybridge said that the book was sad but fabulous and loved the female friendship and Emily and Romsey said what I love most about this book is the way that Menon is constantly shifting the lens and so you were talking about moving from the past to the present day in the telling of that story.

There is this deep sadness that runs through the book and it's rooted in the friendship of these two girls and I wondered if you could tell me a little bit about writing female friendship which is a really strong love but so different to say romantic or familial love.

Yeah, absolutely.

We'll come to, as you said, the descriptions of what happens in the past are filled with this beautiful, natural, ecological writing.

And we'll come to that later because it is just fantastic.

Ji-Young, Lara in Plymouth said about your book that what makes this story so powerful is its insistence on humanity.

Even in the darkest moments, there are threads of love, resistance and quiet defiance, which is a great comment, I think.