“It actually should be Booths-plural,” Fowler says, “but that’s just so hard to say. “As much as I am trying to argue that he is not the most interesting person in this family, I know that the narrative tension in the book is all because of John Wilkes Booth.”Įven the book’s title is problematic. “I would not have written this book if John Wilkes had not killed Abraham Lincoln,” she says. Now she passes that same conundrum along to her readers. How to achieve this delicate balance, “from the words, to the conception, to the way the book was organized,” was something Fowler “grappled with on nearly every page.” Instead, she was interested in exploring the culpability and guilt of the Booth parents and siblings. Her despair over gun violence in the United States prompted her to choose this topic, but she didn’t want to focus on the assassin. “As much as I am trying to argue that he is not the most interesting person in this family, I know that the narrative tension in the book is all because of John Wilkes Booth.”ĭespite such a wealth of source material, and despite her husband’s reassurances, writing this book was particularly difficult for Fowler. The Booths were a famous theatrical family celebrated for their Shakespearian performances, especially father Junius and brother Edwin, whose 1893 funeral was described as one of “the most remarkable ever held in New York City” by the New York Times. You can practically hear her good-natured wheels turning as she discusses her latest novel, Booth, an immersive, behind-the-scenes account of the years leading up to Abraham Lincoln’s assassination at Ford’s Theatre in 1865, by way of an investigation into the family of assassin John Wilkes Booth. “Or do you just not remember? I don’t have an answer to that question.”Īs she does in her writing, Fowler laces her conversations with curiosity, humor and reflection.

“Is it possible that every book is harder than the one before?” Fowler wonders, speaking from her home in Santa Cruz, California. She will lament, “Oh, it’s never been so hard,” and he will remind her: “You did say that last time. By now, Karen Joy Fowler’s husband knows what to expect when his wife starts writing a book, like the bestselling The Jane Austen Book Club or the Booker Prize finalist We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves.

Karen joy fowler author