Shadow of the West follows the daughter of an American diplomat stationed in Berlin in the 70s who makes friends with teenagers from East Berlin. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

While the novel is fiction, the set up for the story is based on my own experiences living in West Berlin in the late 70s. My father was a diplomat at the U.S. Mission in the American Sector in West Berlin. With my diplomatic passport, I was allowed to cross into East Berlin and stay over. My best friend—who lived in the East where her father was a diplomat at the U.S. Embassy to the German Democratic Republic (East Germany)—and I became friends with teenagers in the East. This was unusual—and certainly not encouraged. For a decade, I corresponded with my East German friend. His letters arrived opened and censored until, after the Wall fell in 1989, when he was finally able to write freely. We were reunited in 2011 when he and his family came to visit us when we were living in Istanbul. Our children were curious how we met, and their questions sparked a discussion of our uncommon friendship. It then dawned on me how much my perspective of that strange time differed from his—and how few people ever experienced that chapter in history as I had.

Your coming-of-age story blends the lives of Americans, West Germans, and East Germans at a critical time both in history and their lives. What was your approach to writing the interactions between characters?

I decided to write the story of the protagonist in the West in first person to induce a sense of familiarity, to draw the reader in with a sense that the friendships in the West were like typical high schoolers anytime and anywhere–focused, as teenagers are, more on their own struggles and dramas than on the bigger picture of what is happening in the world around them. The story in the East is developed with a third person narrative, allowing a greater sense of alienation, and to make the reader feel less comfortable, less secure, with less understanding—and so more guarded—which is how I envision most East German citizens had to live. Yet when the characters from the two worlds meet, these differences seem to fade with the sheer force of our shared humanness. Depicting how East German teenagers on the other side of the Wall had no choice but to acknowledge the bigger picture creates a poignant contrast that offers insight: feeling safe and being free is indeed something no one should take for granted. The experiences forever change the protagonist, reshaping her worldview which impacts her interactions with her friends back in the West—thereby having repercussions that extend far beyond her. I wanted to show that friendships across cultural divides can be rewarding and impactful in ways that can exceed the relationships themselves. 

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

I wanted to explore the notion of freedom, its significance to people in different environments, and how its interpretation should matter to each of us. Another theme was individuality: what does it mean in terms of responsibility to the greater good? What happens, both good and bad, when we revere individual thought? How do our experiences influence and challenge our ways of thinking? To what extent are we truly individuals or simply products of our societies? It was also important for me to explore the notion of friendships, how they are not dependent solely on proximity or the length of time people know each other, but rather on the depth of experiences shared. And while only subtly touched upon in this story, I wanted to show tolerance of diversity, and how all of us are entitled to a safe journey through life as our authentic selves.

What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?

I am struggling on which of two books I’ve started to focus my attention on first. One is a fictionalized version of my grandmother’s life when living in occupied Japan after WWII. The other is another “diplomat’s daughter” story that takes place in Istanbul in the 80s. It’s anybody’s guess when I’ll finish either one, but I’m doing my best!

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