1--What is the title of your latest release?
THE LIFE CYCLE OF THE COMMON OCTOPUS
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Eighteen-year-old Penelope Winters moves to Edinburgh for university to unearth a piece of her divorced parents’ history that she knows they’ve been keeping from her. She contacts an estranged friend of her father’s, a novelist called Lord Lennox, who invites her to spend the weekend at his centuries-old estate on Scotland’s east coast. As she pulls at the thread of her family's secret, she unravels more than she bargained for.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
The setting came first. I was writing scenes set in Edinburgh before I knew I was writing a novel.
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Yes. I’ve been spending quite a bit of time with Pen over the past five years. I sometimes get annoyed with her, for the same reasons her friend Alice does, but like Alice I care deeply about her and especially appreciate her spikey, darkly funny side, which she hides from most people.
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Perceptive, determined, careful.
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
How to write a story with a plot. For years I was convinced that this skill was beyond me. I learned on the job.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I tried to finish a draft before beginning to edit, but sometimes I couldn’t resist going back.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Almost anything that involves very dark chocolate, the darker the better.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
I wrote most of this novel at an Ikea door-desk in my bedroom, sometimes with a toddler colouring on an old draft beside me.
10--Who is an author you admire?
There are so many. I admire Miriam Toews for making me laugh while also turning my heart inside out. I admire Elena Ferrante and Doris Lessing for telling the truth no matter how unseemly. I admire Shirley Hazzard for her precision.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
My life is changed for the better in some subtle way by a book at least monthly, if not weekly. Two of the books that split my world open as a young person were A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews and Anna Karenina.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I had just left tea with my high school English teacher, Annette Chiu, whom I had not seen since 2006. The email was in my inbox when I got home. I read it on my phone and started crying in the driveway. When I ran inside and told my eldest daughter, then four, that my book was going to be published, she looked at me in a patient but world-weary way and said, “But Mummy, we already have so many books.”
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
Fiction. All of it.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
It changes with my mood but the movie I’ve watched most often is probably either You’ve Got Mail or When Harry met Sally. Unless you count my teenage obsession with Empire Records, or my childhood one with Matilda.
15--What is your favorite season?
Fall
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
Thai food and a Nora Ephron movie with the people I love.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I loved Orbital by Samatha Harvey. Over the holidays I also greatly enjoyed You Are Here by David Nicolls, Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano, and Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood. We recently moved house and got a puppy, so I have not seen many movies or TV shows lately, but I aspire to watch more in 2025.
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
I’m going to cheat and say “Torontonian,” because Toronto is one of the most diverse cities in the world, which is reflected in our restaurants and grocery stores… and I couldn’t possibly choose one.
19--What do you do when you have free time?
Devour books, of course!
20--What can readers expect from you next?
A bit more of an edge.
A Novel
A witty, atmospheric, and brilliantly told novel that offers compelling portraits of womanhood, motherhood and female friendship, along with the irresistible intrigue surrounding an extraordinary British family
Arriving at the University of Edinburgh for her first term, Pen knows her divorced parents back in Canada are hiding something from her. She believes she’ll find the answer here in Scotland, where an old friend of her father’s—now a famous writer known as Lord Lennox—lives. When she is invited to spend the weekend at Lord Lennox’s centuries-old estate with his enveloping, fascinating family, Pen begins to unravel her parents’ secret, just as she’s falling in love for the first time . . .
As Pen experiences the sharp shock of adulthood, she comes to rely on herself for the first time in her life. A rich and rewarding novel of campus life, of sexual awakening, and ultimately, of the many ways women can become mothers in this world, The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus asks to what extent we need to look back in order to move forward.
Women's Fiction Friendship [Penguin, On Sale: January 1, 2025, Hardcover / e-Book , ISBN: 9780593830451 / eISBN: 9780593830468]
Emma Knight is author of the bestselling vampire series THE VAMPIRE LEGENDS, consisting of seven books: SWORN, TAKEN, BITTEN, CHOSEN, AWAKENED, RISEN, and FALLEN.
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