Catherine by April Lindner
Book Description:
A forbidden romance. A modern mystery. Wuthering Heights as you've never seen it before.
Catherine is tired of struggling musicians befriending her just so they can get a gig at her Dad's famous Manhattan club, The Underground. Then she meets mysterious Hence, an unbelievably passionate and talented musician on the brink of success. As their relationship grows, both are swept away in a fiery romance. But when their love is tested by a cruel whim of fate, will pride keep them apart?
Chelsea has always believed that her mom died of a sudden illness, until she finds a letter her dad has kept from her for years -- a letter from her mom, Catherine, who didn't die: She disappeared. Driven by unanswered questions, Chelsea sets out to look for her -- starting with the return address on the letter: The Underground.
Told in two voices, twenty years apart, Catherine interweaves a timeless forbidden romance with a compelling modern mystery.
Check out our 4.5 Whales Review on Jane: HERE
April Lindner
Interview:
1. Give us 3 interesting facts about you (Be Creative)
Fact one: When I was in high school, I had a peculiar hobby. I invented a rock band (called ZAP) and made up biographies for the band’s four members; I drew endless pictures of them and made up stories about them. I wrote lyrics for their songs. All of this turned out to be very good practice for writing novels about rock musicians.
Fact two: I have an unreasonable fondness for rodents, especially Tootsie and Leeloo, my pet guinea pigs, whom I got from a guinea pig rescue. They’re very gentle and sweet, and they make an otherworldly wheek wheek wheek noise whenever I walk by their cage—so I walk by their cage a lot just to hear it.
Fact three: I’m obsessed with all things Italian…the language, the food, the culture. Sometimes I fall asleep with my iPod plugged in, listening to language tapes and Italian pop music in hopes that Italian will miraculously seep into my sleeping brain. Last summer when I was in Italy for a week to research my next book, I found to my amazement, that it worked. After many years of trying, all of a sudden my I could speak Italian…not brilliantly, but enough to have basic conversations.
2. Some of your favorite books published this 2012 ?
John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars blew me away. It’s funny, heartbreaking, smart, and just plain beautifully written. Jennifer E. Smith’s The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sightwas charming and utterly engrossing.
3. Can you share a little about your current work with us (Catherine)?
Catherine, my second novel, is a modernization of Wuthering Heights. Like the original it’s a story of obsessive love, told over two decades. The story’s told in two voices. The first is Catherine, whose father owns The Underground, a legendary club in New York City. Catherine is tired of being befriended by struggling musicians just so they can get a gig at her dad’s club. But then a mysterious, talented musician named Hence shows up on her doorstep, and Catherine finds herself swept away in an intense and fiery romance that is ultimately tested by fate.
The second voice belongs to Chelsea, Catherine’s daughter, who has long believed her mother died of a brief illness. Then Chelsea finds a letter her dad has kept from her for years—a letter that implies Catherine didn’t die after all: she disappeared. Feeling betrayed and angry, Chelsea runs away in search of her mother. Her first destination is the return address on the letter: The Underground.
4. Jane Eyre is one of my favorites. I was thrilled that you made a modern retelling. Can you share your favorite quote or scene from the book?
My absolute favorite scene in a book full of amazing scenes is the moment under the chestnut tree when Jane can’t hold back anymore; she blurts out her love for Mr. Rochester and accuses him of tormenting her. Her words to him—“Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong — I have as much soul as you, — and full as much heart”—never fail to thrill me, no matter how many times I read them.
5. Can you give us a "Teaser" on your upcoming book, Catherine?
What I’ve always loved about Wuthering Heights is the way it depicts out-of-control passion—violent love and equally violent hatred. Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff aren’t the nicest of people, in fact they’re often downright hateful, to each other and those around them. I’ll confess here and now that I didn’t have the heart to make my characters as ruthless as Cathy and Heathcliff. So Catherine contains passion and occasional acts of cruelty, but none of my characters are purely hateful. In fact, the two characters I set out to make relatively cruel and edgy wound up becoming the two I loved most by the time I was through.
