BOOK CLUB KIT
A Discussion with
HELEN COOPER The Downstairs Neighbor is your fiction debut, but you have written nonfiction in the past. Can you share a bit about your experience as a debut novelist, and how it compared to writing nonfiction? Yes, I’ve previously co-written two books on academic writing for students, with a colleague when I was teaching at the University of © Photography by Gem 2020 Birmingham. They’re about structure, language, editing, style—all relevant to fiction too, of course; I was always noticing the overlaps. One of the books also deals with how to use feedback from others to improve your academic writing—something I can wholeheartedly say is also essential to novel-writing! I had no co-author for support when I wrote The Downstairs Neighbor—that was one difference—but I did have my agent, my writers’ group, and later my editors to give me lots of much-needed feedback and encouragement. Fiction was my first love: I’ve been writing stories and books since I was young (not necessarily finishing them!). I wrote most of The Downstairs Neighbor on my daily commute to work at the University. Fiction is exciting because you can go anywhere with it; you can step into different worlds and different characters’ heads. But it’s also more challenging because you have to achieve so many things at once—intrigue, empathy, believability, emotion, surprise! A novel is a sprawling, overwhelming thing while you’re writing it, but there’s nothing more absorbing and rewarding, in my experience so far. Deciding what story to tell, and how you want to tell it, is a joy.
What inspired you to tell this particular story? I love psychological suspense novels, particularly ones that pack an emotional punch. I wanted to write a book that was twisty and a bit dark, but that also revolved around families and relationships. The first seed of an idea was the image of a neighbor in a shared building, overhearing something shocking. Everybody hears or sees fragments of their neighbors’ lives sometimes—but what if those glimpses were disturbing or worrying, or what if you became obsessed with piecing them together? I’d also been thinking about the secret histories that can exist within a family—parents’ lives before they were parents, or spouses before they were married. How they might feel like they were different people in their pasts. Weaving in other ideas that had been floating around my head (for example, the character of a driving instructor who teaches lots of teenagers in the same neighborhood), I started building this story about people living close to one another, all with something to hide from those around them.
All of the voices in the novel feel so unique—where did these characters, and their voices, come from? Which came first—the characters or the plot? I think bits of the plot came first—or at least, ideas and images that eventually became a plot. But the characters started forming at the same time, really. As soon as I have an idea for a scene or a storyline, I can’t help imagining a character inside it. What kind of person would be in that situation, why, who are they? With The Downstairs Neighbor I kept adding in more and more voices as the story took shape—there were times I despaired of keeping track of all their plots and timelines and backstories! I loved writing the different characters, though, and knotting their lives together. None of them are based wholly on people I know, but of course elements creep in that are influenced by real people, or aspects of myself: Emma’s compulsive sketching and antisocial hamster, Kate’s introversion and love of English, Paul and Freya’s competitive sportiness . . .
The converted Georgian home where all of the characters live feels so vivid! Is it based on a real place? Why did you choose to locate all of the characters in one building? The house became more important with each draft. I wanted a suburban setting, so I based it in KingstonUpon-Thames, where my sister used to live. At first I pictured my sister’s building as I was writing (she lived in a ground-floor flat like my character Emma—though she has pink hair, not blue!), but as the plot became bigger, so did the house, and I ended up with a tall Georgian townhouse, a bit like the one my mum and dad live in. Once I’d moved all the key characters in together, the story got more intense and claustrophobic, which I loved. It was fun to be able to picture the three families on their three different floors. It meant I could keep cranking up the tension in the building as their lives started to intertwine.
What was the research process like for The Downstairs Neighbor? Were there any surprises along the way? I admit I don’t enjoy researching as much as writing! Many of my former colleagues at the University of Birmingham were incredibly patient, thorough researchers, but I’m afraid I’m not! I write first, research later, which sometimes means going back and correcting things. However, I love it when the research throws up further ideas for the story, which it often does. And when the writing takes me down bizarre research trails, into topics I never thought I would need to know so much about. The two storylines that required the most research—without giving anything away—were Paul’s and Kate’s. There were some elements of those that were unfamiliar and slightly complicated. I take full responsibility for any errors!
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ONCE I’D MOVED ALL THE KEY CHARACTERS IN TOGETHER, THE STORY GOT MORE INTENSE AND CLAUSTROPHOBIC.
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The story is narrated from several different perspectives—were there any sections that you particularly loved writing, or that were more challenging than others? I loved writing from Kate’s perspective. Hers is probably the thread that changed the least through all my drafts of the book. I was able to get into her head quite quickly, and her voice flowed quite naturally, maybe because I wrote her sections in the first person. The other perspectives are so entwined that it was sometimes more challenging to write them—I had to build up the details of their lives more slowly and carefully. But I also had a lot of fun bouncing them off one another, thinking about the connections and differences between them, and all the ways they might collide. The hardest characters to write were the ones with the biggest secrets to keep!
The relationships between women—mothers, children, friends, and cousins—are so essential to The Downstairs Neighbor. Were they inspired by any of your own personal relationships? Were they challenging to write about? I enjoyed writing about lots of different types of relationships in the book, but the ones between the woman characters definitely became the heart. Luckily, the relationships I have in real life aren’t so full of drama and disaster! But I do have a lot of female relatives and friends whom I’m very close to, so that probably influenced me to explore that theme. I think it began with Kate and her mum, and Kate and her cousin—those two relationships are absolutely central to sixteen-year-old Kate’s world, and when one of those is threatened, that’s catastrophic for her. It was then interesting to set up a parallel with Steph and Freya, another mother and
daughter, and to introduce a new connection between Emma and Steph, who are thrown together by circumstances. Steph and Emma started to mirror each other more and more as I wrote. It was interesting to explore the idea that they’d made judgments about each other, as neighbors, but might never have gotten beyond that (for better or for worse) if it wasn’t for Freya’s disappearance.
Without giving anything away, did you always know how the story would end? Or did the ending change during the writing process? I always knew what the main “reveal” was going to be, in terms of the central mystery of the story, but there were lots of other things about the ending that changed. I find endings quite challenging—I love developing characters, intrigue, mystery . . . but pulling it all together and delivering on all that setup in the final pages can be quite a task! That’s where feedback is particularly important, I think. You need early readers to tell you how they feel when they reach the end of your book. And then you have to consider if that’s how you wanted them to feel! I have many people to thank for helping me find an ending that, I hope, works for the story.
Are you a big suspense reader? Do you have any other favorite authors in this genre? Yes, I definitely am. I’m just looking at my bookshelf and flicking through my Kindle now, realizing how many brilliant suspense books are on there. Too many to list them all. Lisa Jewell has been one of my favorites for a long time, especially since she started writing darker psychological suspense (although I loved her romantic comedies too). I also love (*takes deep breath*): Louise Candlish, Liane Moriarty, Gillian McAllister, Lucie Whitehouse, Adele Parks, Camilla Way, Clare Mackintosh, Gillian Flynn, Ruth Ware, Holly Seddon, Fiona Barton. . . Seriously, I could go on and on!
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I LOVE DEVELOPING CHARACTERS, INTRIGUE, MYSTERY.
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Authors from other genres have been a big influence too: Maggie O’Farrell’s incredible use of language; Kate Morton’s mystery-building; David Nichols’s characters; Anne Tyler’s dialogue; Sadie Jones’s general brilliance. And I have to mention Daphne du Maurier—the original queen of suspense!
What’s next for you? I’m writing another psychological suspense at the moment, about a woman who is called to a hospital in the middle of the night, because a man she’s been on one date with has been rushed in with unexplained injuries. . . I won’t say much more! I’ve also set part of it in Italy, mainly so I can keep re-living the two holidays I’ve taken there in the past couple of years . . .
READING GROUP GUIDE 1.
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All of the characters in The Downstairs Neighbor are grappling with the question, How well do we really know those closest to us? Spouses, children, parents, and neighbors all have something to hide—what is each character hiding, and how do their secrets impact one another? How does keeping secrets endanger or protect each of them?
Is eavesdropping or spying on your neighbors or family members ever permissible? Under what circumstances?
2. Did you find any of the narrators in the novel to be more reliable than others? On a different note, did you find certain characters to be more relatable (regardless of their reliability)? Did your perceptions of each narrator change over the course of the read?
3. How does the setting of The Downstairs Neighbor impact the plot? Could this story have taken place if all of the characters lived in separate homes? What does having all of the characters—and suspects—under one roof add to the narrative?
4. How do the experiences of our teenage years impact us as adults? Take a look at Emma, Kate, and Freya’s time as teenagers in particular.
5. Compare and contrast the different relationships between mothers and their teenage children in the novel. What parenting mistakes do Emma, Steph, and Kate’s mother make? What do they do right?
7. Discuss the ways that the past—or misconceptions about the past—impact Paul, Steph, and Emma. Do you believe that in the end they are able to move beyond past traumas? If so, why?
8. Why do you think Emma agrees to keep Steph’s secret for her, and why is she so intrigued by the Harlow family? Why do you think the two women feel connected to each other?
9. Both Steph and Paul have changed their identities over the course of their lives, and they go to great lengths to prevent their loved ones from finding out about their pasts. How does not being able to talk about their previous identities hurt the two of them individually and as a couple? What are the psychological effects of burying a previous identity?
10. What do you make of Steph’s final words in the novel? Do you think that she and Paul will stick to their resolution to be more honest in the future? What do you think is next for the Harlow family?
THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Negroni Cocktail Ingredients
1 ounce JunĂpero gin 1 ounce Campari 1 ounce Martini and Rossi sweet vermouth Garnish: orange wheel
Steps
Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass filled with ice. Stir until well chilled. Pour into an Old Fashioned glass with ice. Garnish with an orange wheel.
Recipe adapted from Tony Abou-Ganim, Liquor.com, liquor.com/recipes/neighborhood-negroni