'People forgot I existed': Audrey Niffenegger on taking 14 years to write a sequel to The Time Traveler’s Wife
Her debut made her a global star. Now she has finally written a follow-up – and this time, it’s political. She talks about impostor syndrome, screen adaptations and becoming radicalised
TL;DR
- Niffenegger began writing the sequel to The Time Traveler's Wife in 2012, a process that took 14 years.
- The new novel, Life Out of Order, focuses on the daughter of the original protagonists and explores more overtly political and dystopian themes.
- Niffenegger attributes her increasingly dark imaginings of the future to the trajectory of American politics since growing up with Watergate.
- The Time Traveler's Wife, published in 2003, became a global phenomenon, selling over 9 million copies and leading to film and television adaptations.
- The author experienced impostor syndrome following the success of her debut and found the scrutiny extraordinary.
- Her second book, Her Fearful Symmetry, earned a $5m advance, which surprised Niffenegger due to public fascination with her finances.
- Niffenegger's artistic interests remain consistent, focusing on themes of love, loss, death, sex, and romance, but recent political events have made her more actively engaged in activism.
- She has been waiting for resolutions to real-world events to inform her writing, finding some outcomes predictable and others not.
- Niffenegger is planning a small book tour and has new writing projects, including potentially expanding her graphic novel, The Night Bookmobile.