Eowyn Ivey’s debut novel, The Snow Child, earned her a place as a finalist for the Pulitzer prize for fiction as well as becoming an international bestseller. Her new book, To the Bright Edge of the World, tells the story of a late 19th-century expedition into the Alaska wilderness. Ivey lives in Alaska with her husband and two children.
Your new novel follows a military expedition to map Alaskan territory in 1885. How much of that story is based in historical fact?
A fair amount. There was a real expedition in 1885 led by Henry T Allen. I relied a great deal on his official reports and then there are diaries and letters by one of his expedition members. But I would take threads of things that were said or documented and develop them in ways that would fit into my Wolverine river fantasy world.
The novel comprises fictional journals, letters, photographs and museum caption cards. Was that structure informed by the primary source material?
Yes. Letters and documents add credibility to what would otherwise be an unbelievable story, so I thought they would make it seem more authentic, even though some of the things that happen are wild and amazing.
Your heroine, Sophie, is ahead of her time: she eschews social convention and develops a passion for photography. Where did the inspiration come from?
The year 1885 was such an interesting time because photography was just becoming accessible to the common person. There was a female American ornithologist and photographer at that time – Cordelia Stanwood – who spent hours photographing and observing birds. I think women are always looking for ways to express themselves and break into what might otherwise have been a man’s world. I’ve always loved women through history who march to their own drum.
Light is very important in the new novel both in terms of the expedition and Sophie’s photography. How much of that preoccupation was influenced by Alaskan hours of daylight and darkness?
Where we live we have about a month with no direct sunlight. And then there’ll be this moment in late winter where it will peek through a valley and we’ll get this really bright shard of sunlight for about a minute. I always take a photo of it and call my husband to say, “We have direct sunlight!” That’s what I love about Alaska: the extremes. It makes you appreciate the sunlight when you haven’t seen it for weeks.
Both your novels are set in Alaska. What is it about the landscape that you find so compelling?
I feel like I’ve always been trying to understand Alaska. It’s a little overwhelming as a place, even when you’ve grown up here as I have. It’s a challenge not to let the landscape completely dominate your writing but still grapple with it because it’s such a huge presence in all our lives.
What’s overwhelming about it?
The landscape is much bigger than civilisation here. We tend to romanticise nature but in Alaska there’s a dichotomy between beauty and something that’s also a little terrifying. That’s what I find fascinating in fiction writing: where there’s some kind of friction you can’t quite make amends with.
Folklore and mythology play an important role in your fiction: what draws you to that fantastical element?
I often get asked if I believe in magic and I really don’t. I just love the things that happen in folklore stories. And because I’m always writing about this landscape then stories that are rooted here just speak to me.
Your debut novel was a huge international success. Did that make writing the second novel harder or easier?
It’s nerve-racking. My only concern was I did want to do something different and stretch my wings, but I also didn’t want to disappoint fans of The Snow Child. Hopefully I’ve done something new but something that The Snow Child readers will enjoy as well.
To the Bright Edge of the World is published by Headline (£16.99). Click here to buy it for £13.93
