CAROLYN KAY BRANCATO AUTHOR Interview by Harryet Candee
Harryet Candee: Carolyn, how did you get inspired to write your latest book, The Night Belongs to the Maquis? And, when you are writing, do you travel to a different place? Carolyn Kay Brancato: The inspiration for The Night Belongs to the Maquis came some years ago in an acting class at Ensemble Studio Theatre in NYC. We were asked to create a character then write a monologue for that person. I came up with a situation in which a nun, during WWII in France, was asked for sanctuary by a young German soldier who refused to commit Nazi atrocities. The “stakes” were high for her, since giving him sanctuary would endanger everyone in the church as well as the entire village. After I performed it, my instructor told me I should definitely pursue this dramatic story idea—which I did, first as a play, then more recently as a novel. A few weeks later, the New York Times happened to publish a travel section article about a small Southern French village called Foix, near the border with Spain. It was a critical hub of French Resistance (Maquis) activity to get downed WWII Allied pilots over the Pyrénées and out of France. I was so emotionally vested in the character I had just created that I immediately made plans to travel there later that year. I was fortunate to meet three members of the Resistance, one of whom was the leader of the circuit that got approximately 500 downed pilots and other agents out of France. He had been captured by the Gestapo and tortured by Klaus Barbie, and gave me a copy of his deposition in the Barbie trial in Lyon, asking me to tell his story. Although my novel is fiction, it’s based on true events and real-life people, dedicated to all those courageous enough to fight fascismpast and present. When I write, I completely submerge myself in each of my characters, as an actor would to prepare for a role on stage or screen. Not only do I visualize what they look like in the minutest detail, but I craft 42 • MAY 2022 THE ARTFUL MIND
their backstory, where they grew up, how they walk, how they eat, sleep, make love, dream, etc. Having quite literally traveled to this village, when I sat down to write, I surrounded myself with maps, journals I’d acquired, photos and other research materials. Then I go deep inside each of my characters’ heads—to find out what they’re thinking and feeling and even how they argue with each other. Often your characters develop minds of their own and do things to surprise you! What parts of this story did you find the most exciting in creating? When I write, I have all my research in the back of my mind, but then I just sit back and let my characters interact with each other. It’s thrilling to find out what they’ll do when I put them in impossible situations and then raise the stakes even more. Perhaps the most exciting part of writing this novel came toward the end, when I truly did not know how my heroine’s journey would end. Would she be reunited with her former lover or would he be killed by the Nazis? If he did survive, could they put his unsavory past aside or would they have to part? In order to be with him, would she renounce her sacred vows, taken when she thought he was dead? Would they come together to liberate Foix or would they fail in their mission? How many would die along the way? It was exciting to work out these nail-biting issues as I got deeper into the novel. Do you have an all-time favorite writer and book you treasure? I wouldn’t say I had one favorite writer or treasured book. I grew up with opera on the record player—Italian opera sung by such greats as Enrico Caruso. As you know, opera is one of the most dramatic and passionate forms of art. I was completely enthralled when my father and my aunt took me
