Author Liane Moriarty on her long-awaited sequel to 'Big Little Lies'
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Why did Liane Moriarty finally decide to write a sequel to *Big Little Lies*?
Hey, it's MPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. What does a writer owe to their readers? Obviously a good story, sure, but particularly when you're working within a certain genre, readers come to want things. They come to expect certain things. This is particularly true when you're writing a sequel, and readers already have built-in relationships with your characters. Leon Moriarty is on the pod today, talking about her novel Big Little Truths. It's a sequel to her novel Big Little Truth. Big Little Lies, which is adapted into a pretty popular TV show on HBO with big name actors like Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern and Meryl Streep. After the break, Moriarty talks to Here and Now's Emiko Tamagawa about the relationship between the TV show and the books and how the show changed the course for some of her characters in the book.
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Leon Moriarty published Big Little Eyes back in twenty fourteen, so why write a sequel now? This
was the one book where people kept asking and every now and then there'd be this um big moment where everybody would be saying, Oh, we really do want a new season of Big Little Lies.
How did fan pressure and a high‑school setting inspire *Big Little Truths*?
And then I actually started writing a book set in a high school. And then the the uh it came up again, everybody saying we want a new season. And then I suddenly thought You know what, I could put that storyline into the big little lies world. And all of a sudden I said, I'm doing it. Then they said, We want it now. Um, which I I wasn't used to because you know authors are sort of leisurely. Um in the film world they're saying, now, now, now.
Well, it's also I mean, 'cause the book is like all of your books. really filled with detail and length and you know, lots of ramifications. So it just like, my gosh, trying to write that in a hurry kind of amazes me. But thank you. I did want to ask you, 'cause you have this lovely little letter to the reader at the beginning. And one of the things you talk about is the fact that this book is not influenced by the series except for a couple of amazing actors. And I just want to play a little clip from each of them. One of them, of course, is Laura Dern who plays is it Renata? Yes. And we have a little scene of her talking to Matt. Adeline, uh Reese Witherswin's character on the first day of school in the first season of Big Little Eyes.
How was your summer?
In what ways did Laura Dern’s and Meryl Streep’s performances shape the new novel?
It was wonderful. Very busy with the kids and camp. Just uh flew by. Same. How was yours, yeah? Well, joined the board of PayPal. What was I thinking? Adding one more thing to my life. But you know, oh, hold on.
Yeah, and th that phone call is about Hamilton tickets. And basically when we first meet her, she has the life that everybody wants. The other one is of course in season two, the edition of the amazing Meryl Streep, who plays Nicole Kidman's mother in law, uh Mary Louise. And there's another scene, again with Madeline that is just killer. Uh just wanna hear that. You're very short. Excuse me? I don't mean it in a negative way. No. Maybe I do. I find little people to be untrustworthy.
What aging‑related issues does *Big Little Truths* explore through its characters?
As a vertically challenged person, I took umbrage at that. You know, sh I mean both of them are such wonderful actors. I and yes, both Renata and Mary Louise appear far more prominently in this book, Big Little Truths. Like uh w was it that you couldn't quite get them out of your head or
yes. So in the first book, um, Renata only has a very small one of her defining um personality um features is just that every time which was somebody I I one of the other school parents, they were always coming from a board meeting of some sort. So that was just she was really just um that annoying parent.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why did Liane Moriarty finally decide to write a sequel to *Big Little Lies*?
0:02–1:30
2
How did fan pressure and a high‑school setting inspire *Big Little Truths*?
1:30–2:42
3
In what ways did Laura Dern’s and Meryl Streep’s performances shape the new novel?
2:42–3:31
4
What aging‑related issues does *Big Little Truths* explore through its characters?
3:31–5:09
5
Why does Moriarty write novels first, without thinking about TV adaptations?
5:09–6:49
6
How does Moriarty describe her personal connection with readers after the HBO series?
6:49–8:19
7
Will there be more *Big Little Lies* sequels or future TV seasons?
8:19–9:44
8
What lasting impact did the HBO adaptation have on Moriarty’s career and audience?
9:44–11:05
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from NPR's Book of the Day
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