Sarah Bernstein had the words of an artist in mind when she began writing her second novel, Study for Obedience.
She had visited an exhibition dedicated to visual artist Paua Rego in Edinburgh, Scotland. A quotation placed on a wall of the art gallery had particularly marked her.
“The quote said something like, ‘I can turn a situation around any way I want.’ I can make my wives both obedient and murderous at the same time,” recalls Sarah Bernstein.
She says the quote captures “an interesting tension” and inspired her to write her novel, which is on the long list of nominees for the Booker Prize for the best fiction book written in English and published in the UK. United and Ireland.
Ms. Bernstein lives and teaches in Scotland. She says she was “incredulous” when her editor told her the news. “I can’t stress how simply inconceivable that was,” she said.
The novel Study for Obedience was published by Granta Books. It explores the links between power, harm and examines how history has shaped people. It is due out next month in Canada where it will be published by Penguin Random House.
Some called it “disturbing”. One critic even wrote that the author had pulled off a masterstroke.
In Study for Obedience, an unreliable narrator tells the story of a young woman who has moved to a distant land where her ancestors lived in order to care for her brother whose wife has just left her. The woman’s arrival is followed by “a series of inexplicable events”. The local people are increasingly hostile to her, even though she tries to do well.
The author explains that she wanted to explore a character with “typically feminine characteristics”, a character who listens, heals and obeys, but “who is endowed with a mysterious power over others”.
Considerations of how history is passed down from generation to generation and the role of instruction or simple observation in the acquisition of behaviors are inserted into the text, adds Bernstein.
Earlier this year, the writer’s name was included in the list of Britain’s top twenty young novelists.
Sarah Bernstein studied Creative Writing and English at Concordia University in Montreal before moving to New Brunswick where she earned a master’s degree. She then moved to Edinburgh in 2013 to study for a PhD. “And I stayed in Scotland. »
She lives in the Highlands. She teaches literature and creative writing at the University of Strathclyde, a job that allows her to combine academic work with fiction writing.
Since publishing her latest novel and announcing her Booker Prize nomination, Bernstein says she has renewed contact with writers in Montreal and the Maritimes. She feels like it “is still possible to be a Canadian writer without living [in Canada]”.
The author says she still hopes to be able to return there one day.
The name of the Booker Prize winner will be announced on November 26. Previously, the list of 10 candidates will be reduced to five in September. Past winners include Alice Munro, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondatjee and Zadie Smith.