Hi Saskia and welcome to Alba in Bookland. First of all could you tell us a bit about yourself: Thanks for inviting me! I live in London with my partner and my four (grown-up) children, plus a menagerie of animals: 3 dogs, 2 cats and a leopard gecko. I used to work as a Health & Beauty editor on women’s magazines; I’ve also been a ghostwriter and script reader. I’ve always loved writing, and wanted to make it my career, so I feel very lucky to be doing this. I also love dancing, tango in particular, and looking after creatures, hence the number of animals and children in my life…

In your latest book, The Other Me, the main role is hiding a big secret and is living a lie. How did you come up with this idea? Any big secrets in your life you want to share with us? If I told you the secret, it would no longer be one! Seriously, I’m fascinated with identity, and the issues around it. I’ve just been listening to the radio and there was a piece about people who role-play and escape into being fantasy characters at the weekend. So many of them said they only felt like ‘themselves’ when they were dressing up and pretending to be someone else. Of course, in Klaudia’s case, she is also running away from a sense of inherited guilt and her repressive childhood.

The Other Me has a stunning cover that I think will catch everyone's attention. What was your reaction when you first saw it? Thanks! I was thrilled when I saw it. I love everything about it: the colours, the design, and the sense of darkness gathering around the beautiful pink of the tutu and the pale skin of the dancer…

Which 3 words would you use to describe the story behind The Other Me? Dark and layered, (like the best chocolate cake) and also kind.

How does your writing process go? Do you plan everything first or you just start writing and let your characters talk to you? I usually begin with the spark of an idea, and the nascent sense of a character or two. Then I begin to piece a story together in my mind – always character-led. After that the process is different for every book. 

The Other Me is your third book already. Did you find writing your second and third novel more difficult than your first, after its success? Or have you learned from your "mistakes"? I hope I improve as I go along. Each book is a huge learning-curve. I was incredibly lucky to have a lot of media attention and the Richard and Judy Bookclub with The Twins, my debut novel. It can’t always be that way. (It was a bit like actually being pregnant with twins, and having the red carpet treatment! I saw the consultant every time and everyone made a fuss. Then I had my son, and found out what it was like for most pregnant women.)The important thing for me is that I do the best I can with the story I’m telling. I’m always focused on whatever I’m writing now.

Do you remember the first story you ever wrote and what it was about? I began telling my younger sister stories when I was about six. One that she liked a lot involved a girl who couldn’t walk and her toy pony that came to life every night and took her on wonderful adventures.

If you could have a party with your favourite authors, dead or alive, who would you invite? I’d resurrect some really iconic authors for my party – people like Shakespeare, John Donne, Oscar Wilde, Jane Austen, Ezra Pound and Anne Frank. 

And finally, what are you working on now? I’m working on a book that’s a little different from my others in that it has a stronger thriller strand – but it also has an emotional heart. It’s called The Stranger and it’s set in an idyllic English village where one woman puts herself at risk by trusting a stranger who evokes suspicion in everyone else. As the story unravels we realize that the village is not as idyllic as it first seems, and our heroine has been betrayed by someone, but is it her would-be lover, her dead husband or the stranger to whom she’s opened her home and her heart?

Thank you Saskia for sharing a bit more about yourself and your stories with us. I really enjoyed your answers.

About the book:

Blurb: Eliza Bennett has the life she's always dreamed of.She's who she wants to be, and she's with the man she loves.

But Eliza is living a lie. Her real name is Klaudia Meyer.

And Klaudia is on the run. She's escaping her old life, and a terrible secret buried at the heart of her family.

This is the story of Eliza and Klaudia - one girl, two lives and a lie they cannot hide from.

Psychological and suspenseful: the gripping story of one girl living a double life.

From rising star Saskia Sarginson, author of The Twins and Without You.

Review: When I first picked up The Other Me, I had no idea what to the expect. The blurb doesn't give much away and only reading it I thought it would be kind of a psychological thriller. But soon, I realised that this story was so much more than I first thought and not so "thrillery". The first thing that surprised me was that Eliza is really young, still a university student when we meet her (although she has dropped her degree and is following a career in dancing, her true passion). I don't know why I expected her to be older. Anyway, I instantly felt drawn to her. I wanted to know more about her and why she had decided to leave her life as Klaudia behind.

What followed was a real beautifully written complex tale about identity, family and finding yourself in this big confusing world. Thanks to flashbacks we get to read about Klaudia/Eliza's childhood. A very difficult one, that is. She was bullied when she started high school for being the daughter of a German as everyone thought he was a Nazi. Klaudia, who had been home schooled until then, was quite naive and actually have no idea about her father's past so soon adopted some misconceptions about him and his life and started counting the days until she could leave him and her old life behind. I found this topic really interesting to read, especially through young Klaudia's eyes. Her story truly captured me and made me think a lot about identity and what defines a person, their upbringing and surroundings or the choices they make...

Also, I was positively surprised to see that the story had a third narrator (if you count Klaudia and Eliza as two different ones) in Ernst, Klaudia's uncle. I love reading historical fiction and Ernst's chapters are set in Prewar Germany and also during the war and tell the story of him and Klaudia's father. A story I found really interesting in its own but that also had clear links to the present. This search for the feeling of belonging and how we see ourselves through other's eyes. 

I can say that I thoughtfully enjoyed The Other Me from cover to cover and that it really got to me in some moments. Saskia's style was captivating and involving. While reading this story, I couldn't think of anything else. Klaudia's story (and also Ernst's) is one I won't forget in a long time. A highly recommended read for me. 

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