"Birds of Paradise" by Diana Abu-Jaber
Jeff Glor talks to Diana Abu-Jaber about "Birds of Paradise," a "multilayered novel about a family that comes apart at the seams -- and finds its way together again."
Jeff Glor: What inspired you to write the book?
Diana Abu-Jaber: I started writing it, in part, because my husband and I were debating starting a family. But we were really scared--ever since we'd moved to Miami, the news was filled with stories about runaway girls and kidnapped children. And I was thinking a lot about how I'd gone off to college at 16, and what a crazy, overwhelming thing that was, to leave home at such a young age. "Birds of Paradise" became a way for me to think about the things that frightened me the most as a parent, to imagine a family, like the one in the book, who live through the scariest things and those deepest fears. I wanted to know what might happen to the family of a runaway, if they'd endure or be blown apart.
JG: What surprised you the most during the writing process?
DAJ: When I first started writing, I thought I knew the reason why the daughter runs away and I wrote a first draft that way. Once I finished that draft, though, I realized that wasn't it at all--it was just what I'd assumed it would be. When I went back in to write a second draft, the real reason turned out to be much darker and more disturbing than I'd expected.
JG: What would you be doing if you weren't a writer?
DAJ: I'm very much drawn to visual media -- I love painting and drawing and I'm obsessed with film. I hope I'd become a filmmaker ... Then again, I might've focused more on my food passion and become a pastry chef -- which I think is another visual medium.
JG: What else are you reading right now?
DAJ: "A Gate At the Stairs" and a big stack of student papers!
JG: What's next for you?
DAJ: I'm writing a follow up to my cooking memoir, "The Language of Baklava." I think the new one will be called "Grace At the Table" -- it's about being a girl with a traditional immigrant parent, struggling to become a writer and then also a mother -- and all the people who said I should choose one or the other!
For more on "Birds of Paradise," visit the W.W. Norton website.