Kathleen Donohoe

摘要

What inspired you to write a story from the perspectives of the wives of New York City firefighters? After 9/11, the firefighters' stories were told from the beginning-first in the news, and then later in many nonfiction books and memoirs. As compelling as they were, I didn't want to tell a fictionalized version of those stories. Coverage of the funerals was a constant in the months after [the attack], and there would be a shot of the widow and her children coming out of the service behind the coffin (when there was one). The novel developed from that image. At the outset, that was the story I wanted to tell-not only what happens after the funeral, but also life before the loss. I hope that firefighters' wives, not just in New York, but everywhere, will come away with the sense that the book captures something of what it means to have a spouse with a dangerous job, and how ordinary life is juxtaposed on that reality.