In 'I Made You Up Inside My Head,' the stories of three strangers become intertwined
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What inspired Marta Pérez‑Carbonell to set the novel on an overnight train?
Hi, I'm Melissa Nadwarney, and this is NPR's Book of the Day. Have you ever tired of the book you're reading and instead just drifted your attention to the people around you, say in a coffee shop or a park or on a train? And then just started to eavesdrop. I actually do this a lot. I make up backstories, fill in the gaps of conversation with my imagination. In the novel I made you up inside my head. The story starts out this way. On a train in Europe, the main character, a translator, gets captivated listening in on the stories of her seatmates. As the book goes on, the characters slide into each other's stories, blending fact and fiction. It's the first novel from author Marta Perez Carbonell, who spoke with Weekend Edition's Scott Simon.
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How do Alicia, Terrence and Mick’s stories begin to intertwine on the train?
We strangers meet on an overnight train from London to Edinburgh and begin to talk. Two American men and a woman, Alicia, who's from Spain and who works as a translator. They trade stories and then It seems as if they begin to inhabit them. I made you up inside my head is the first novel from Marta Perez Carbonel. Was born in Spain, now teaches contemporary Spanish literature at Colgate University. Thanks so much for being with us. It's a pleasure of being here. Let's get you to tell us about this train compartment. Alicia encounters Terrence Melton and Mick Boulder, known as Bo. And they know each other well, don't they?
They do, they do. The two of them have been acquainted for some time. He's a professor. Terry's a professor and make was a student. He was a postgraduate student.
Why is the literary scandal surrounding the writer’s novel central to the plot?
And the two of them appear in her compartment. One of them is a writer and he's at the center of a literary scandal. In his uh latest novel, he seems to have ripped off the life of a young man. who has since disappeared and so they begin talking.
The novel is called Rocco. Hans Haig is is the young Swiss actor who has disappeared. What does Alicia find in their story? She
is intrigued. This is a story that happens as a result of her not having a book. She says, I always read on trains, but I I forgot my book this time. And it is precisely because I didn't have a book that I started to eavesdropping on these two men and she finds a story there. She's intrigued by this idea of what happened with this young man, what happened with Hans.
You speak from some experience, don't you, in this regard?
I do because I too read on trains and uh I have always wondered What would happen if I were not uh looking down?
What does Alicia discover about the missing young man Hans Haig?
What would happen if I looked up? And for a while I did. It was surprising and refreshing how many conversations happened in those train compartments once I did look up.
I always read too. Nobody wants to talk to me though.
I remember for example reading One Hundred Years of Solitude on a night train and I was uh entering Prague as I in the morning as I was finishing the that's you can't really beat that. It's the the idea that there were two stories really happening at once. That's what's always fascinated me about this connection between trains and books. And this is of course part of the essence of this novel, that there is a a multi layeredness of novels within it.
She's been on a uh Yemeni island with a How do I put it this way? Unsuccessful boyfriend, no good boyfriend?
Yes, very much so. Very unsuccessful. She uh herself has questions about her own story. Why did she put herself in this position?
How does the novel explore the theme of isolation through islands and trains?
So she enters into a relationship with a man who is a biologist and his research centers around some endemic trees that exist in Socotra, in an island of the Yemeni coast. And she given the chance. sort of follows him to this island in this expedition that doesn't end very well. Let's say there
are a lot of islands in the book.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What inspired Marta Pérez‑Carbonell to set the novel on an overnight train?
0:02–1:15
2
How do Alicia, Terrence and Mick’s stories begin to intertwine on the train?
1:15–2:05
3
Why is the literary scandal surrounding the writer’s novel central to the plot?
2:05–3:11
4
What does Alicia discover about the missing young man Hans Haig?
3:11–4:16
5
How does the novel explore the theme of isolation through islands and trains?
4:16–5:29
6
Why does the book include a story‑within‑a‑story set in Manhattan?
5:29–6:38
7
What does the conversation reveal about the idea of stories living on after we’re gone?
6:38–8:01
8
How does the interview wrap up with reflections on storytelling and lasting impact?
8:01–9:36
Speakers
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