Bio: Amanda Dykes’ debut
novel, Whose Waves These Are, is the winner of the prestigious 2020
Christy Award Book of the Year, a Booklist 2019 Top Ten Romance debut,
and the winner of an INSPY Award. She’s also the author of Yours Is the
Night and Set the Stars Alight, a 2021 Christy Award
finalist.
After releasing her stunning debut in 2019 —the
Christy Award Book of the Year winner, Whose Waves These Are—Amanda
Dykes has quickly developed a strong rapport with readers for her transcendent
stories filled with subtle yet gripping beauty. Appealing to fans of Anthony
Doerr, Sarah Sundin, and Kate Breslin, Dykes plunges readers into a vividly
told dual-timeline novel with a spectacular Venetian setting in her latest
novel, All
the Lost Places.
About the story: When a baby is discovered floating in a
basket along the canals of 1807 Venice, a guild of artisans takes him in and
raises him as a son, skilled in each of their trades.
Although the boy, Sebastien Trovato, has
wrestled with questions of his origins, it isn’t until a woman washes ashore
his lagoon island that answers begin to emerge. In hunting down his story,
Sebastien must make choices that could alter not just his own future, but that
of the beloved floating city.
Decades later, Daniel Goodman is given
a fresh start in life as the century turns. Hoping to redeem a past laden with regrets,
he is sent on an assignment from California to Venice to procure and translate
a rare book. There, he discovers a mystery wrapped in the pages of that
filigree-covered volume.
With the help of Vittoria, a bookshop keeper,
Daniel finds himself in a web of shadows, secrets, and discoveries carefully
kept within the stones and canals of the ancient city . . . and the mystery of
the man whose story the book does not finish: Sebastien Trovato.
Welcome to my blog, Amanda. Please provide a brief summary of your
new novel All The Lost Places. The story opens with Daniel Goodman, a
young man who believes he has squandered any hope of living a life that means
something. Living in self-exile in “the Great Sand Waste” outside San
Francisco, he learns of a developer who plans to create a “Venice of America” farther
south on the coast. As part of this endeavor, Daniel puts everything on the
line to obtain a job translating a rare volume located in Venice, in order to
save his mother’s home, which is at risk due to his own past actions.
What he doesn’t
expect to find is the tale of a man who lived decades before, born for a fate
that was gone before he ever had a chance to live it. It is the tale of
Sebastien Trovato, an orphan discovered floating in a basket on the canals in
the black of night. The account also tells of a woman who washed ashore on his
lagoon island in a storm, and soon Sebastien and Mariana’s paths are
inextricably intertwined.
As Daniel works to
translate Sebastien’s tale, it becomes deeply personal, as Sebastien’s own hunt
for his identity echoes that of Daniel’s.
In the ancient
floating city that crumbles in a living state of decay, it is in the cracks and
broken things that hope begins to shine bright in both timelines. And when
those timelines inevitably intersect as Daniel discovers what became of Mariana
and Sebastien, hope breaks past the shadows entirely, making way for a new
life.
This novel follows two men, both in Venice, but a century apart. Can
you tell us a bit about each of these two characters? I’d love to! Sebastien
Trovato is the man who, as a baby, was found floating in a canal. His
upbringing was such a delight to write. Imagine growing up migrating, like a
bird, from lagoon island to lagoon island, learning the trades of glassblower,
gondolier, fisherman, gardener, and more. His childhood was a true joy to get
to write. His adulthood was interesting to ponder, too. At one point in the
story, he learns that the future he was born for had vanished before he ever
took his first breath. It was interesting to ponder what that would be like for
him to discover and what his newly discovered purpose could be, and whether
that had been his true purpose all along.
Daniel Goodman is
a few generations behind Sebastien, but the more he learns about the man, the
more he discovers about his own heart. He is a convicted thief, and one of the
things he’s stolen, without realizing it at the time, was his own future.
Remorseful, he now lives to make restitution as best he can for his past
wrongs—but still feels something is missing. Add to that that he was once very
talented as an artist but as a result of an injury sustained during his days of
thievery, he can no longer “imagine” in the traditional sense, he is very much
at odds over whether he has anything to offer to the world. Traveling a world
away, he begins to learn that the voids and the lost places, when held in redeeming
hands, can be a place of life, too, far richer than he ever dared imagine.
What inspired you to write a story set in Venice during these time
periods? Venice
is such a breathtaking, stranger-than-fiction place. It’s no wonder that there
are many stories set there. Things like Carnivale, masquerades, gondolas, espionage,
artisans, and more make it feel like a fairytale set in history.
However, after
Napoleon invaded Venice at the end of the 1700s, Venice entered a strange time,
where things that felt so classically “Venetian” kept shifting and changing.
There was no longer a Doge (the elected ruler). The Council of Ten was gone. Much
of the city’s cherished art had been pillaged and taken away or destroyed. Carnivale was even outlawed for many decades.
Though the turn of events was complex—some mourned it, some revolted, some
welcomed it—in many ways, it was a stripping away of tradition and identity.
This was the “floating
city” that had been born in a swamp in order to give exiles refuge, centuries
before, in a setting even their worst enemies would not venture. And now, the
city seemed to be sharing the fate of those wandering exiles: lost, uncertain
of home, unsure of its future.
Compared to the
eras that marked the peak of Venice’s power and prominence (1300s–1600s), the
1800s seem to be a time of relative obscurity in history. But what about the
people who lived then? Didn’t their lives matter just as much as the Doges and
all the Patrician families listed in the Book of Gold from the preceding
centuries (a book that Napoleon subsequently burned)? And the artisans—what did
they make of their craft, their livelihoods, their purpose during this time
when demand for their services and skill waned greatly?
And most of all, could
a destiny be “missed” by a matter of mere meters? Sebastien believes his basket
was bound for an orphanage, but he was plucked from the canal by a fisherman
instead.
All of this
beckoned me to spend years researching and writing this story, and I’m so
thankful to have had that chance.
What’s the most challenging and rewarding part of writing a dual-time
novel? Interestingly,
they go hand-in-hand. To me, the most challenging part is trying to fit two
full stories into the space of one novel.
However, while
that’s a challenge, it also means threading clues, themes, time lapses,
symbolism, and more into the story for the reader to take hold of in order to
navigate the unique terrain of a dual-time novel. And to me, this can
potentially foster a close relationship with the reader. You’re offering what
you can, leaving purposeful spaces, and asking the reader to step out onto that
dance floor. It’s. . . well, it’s magic! It’s not just a conveying of
information. It’s a joining of forces—writer and reader—to traverse the terrain
and experience the story deeply. I think that’s the most rewarding part.
Your readers have
said you have a talent for transporting them to a different time and place. How
do you add such historical depth to your novels? That’s very kind
and generous of them! It’s an honor and joy to get to delve into different locales
and times in our world’s history, and I think it comes down to one main thing:
learning.
I tend to begin
researching a novel location by listening to a broad historical overview on an
audiobook. That gets the ideas stirring as far as what might be possible, and
then I follow different leads from there. Talking to everyone I can who has
been there, or lives there, or has a personal connection to the place. Reading
letters or journals from people who lived during the time, hopefully in or near
the setting. Watching documentaries. Reading classic fiction that was written
during the time the book will be set.
Sometimes there
are limits. It’s not always possible to visit a location in person. All
the Lost Places was researched and written while international travel
was largely shut down, even if I had been in a season where I was able to
travel far distances (which I wasn’t at the time—I’d just had a baby!).
But the good news
is, life is textured and detailed, no matter where you are. I took frequent
walks in a neighborhood that had Italianate architecture, taking note of
shadows and surfaces, cobwebs, and the feel of it all. The bell that rings from
a belltower near one of the cafes I frequented when editing this novel gave me
a small feel for the many belltowers in Venice, and what it’s like to hear them
in person. Flying into Denver for a weekend trip, my seatmate (who I did not
know) made a casual mention of a hotel with beautiful gardens in the city I was
going to visit. On a whim, my daughter and I stopped there to check it out—and
found ourselves surrounded by the magic of the Broadmoor, with its mosaics and
waterfalls and fountains, its painted vaulting ceilings with a chandelier that
appeared to be branches in bloom (right after I’d just written about a
chandelier that appeared to be branches in bloom earlier that week!). Lights
reflecting upon the lake, just as they might upon Venetian canals . . .
What themes do you
explore through your characters in this book? What becomes of
the lost places? This is the theme that echoed throughout the whole writing and
editing process. In life, there are things that may be lost: dreams, a
particular future as it had been imagined, possessions, relationships. And
sometimes that can rock us into a place of further loss, where we ask the
question, “Who am I, in light of this loss of something that was so much a part
of me?”
My hope is that this book takes these questions, and although answers might not
be readily available in uniform neat and tidy packages, there is a resonating
answer that can flow into any situation: I am loved. Found by a God who would
cross any distance, overcome any obstacle, face any danger, just to find me. That’s
who I am.
This is even
present in Sebastien’s last name, Trovato, which means found. It was a
surname often given to foundlings, but his guardians shine new light on it. He
is “found” in the sense of being a great treasure, worthy of searching for and
pursuing. This is how God sees us, this is what He does for us, and I hope so
much that this is the anthem that comes through the threads of this story.
What challenges
did you experience while writing this story? See the above answer and envision a
writer asking these questions as she struggles with losing the ability to write
(while on a book deadline). That was me, during the drafting of this book. After
a difficult battle with a certain virus we all know, I experienced months and
months of extreme fatigue, “brain fog,” etc. The irony was almost laughable, how
it embodied the themes I’d already settled on for
this story. I was being allowed to live those themes to some extent, and they
shook me so much that I found myself in a place where it was just me and God, this
story shimmering in pieces around me, and Him shining this steady,
always-giving light and saying “It’s you I love. Not what you can or can’t do.
Not what you do or don’t have. Not what you’ve lost, or think you’ve failed at.
It’s you.”
It was a long journey toward healing, for both me and for the story,
but I’m thankful to look back at it all from a place of humility, deep
gratitude, and joy.
What lessons do
you hope readers gain from reading All
the Lost Places? I hope that whatever lost places they’re facing,
they’ll be encouraged by this story and offered a place to set the book aside
and be held by that same God. Right there in that broken place.
I hope they’ll
look at a mosaic and see in its cracks a story of utmost care, artistry,
redemption, purpose, and love. The story of an artist, handpicking each piece.
Cherishing each piece. Moving it into place in a breathtakingly beautiful work
of art. Did you know some mosaic artists call their collected pieces their
“harvest”? Harvest is generally a word used to talk about crops—which give
life. Could it be that the pieces of our lives, held in a Master’s hand, might
give life to someone, too?
I hope they’ll
think of a swamp, forsaken by all, undesirable as a place to live because of
insects and disease. I hope that in the next blink, they’ll see that swamp as
what it became: a place of refuge. The jewel of the Adriatic. A safe harbor. A
mecca of art and beauty, music and bells, and impossible architecture. A place
where life was built upon wood and preserved against all odds or reason.
I hope that in all
of this, they’ll be gripped not by my story, but by a much greater one: that of
the One who offered life itself upon wood, and redeemed hearts against all odds
or reason.
How can readers
connect with you?
Each month I send out “Three Good Things,” a newsletter containing dinner ideas
from the kitchens of other authors, monthly giveaways, behind-the-scenes trivia
about books, newsletter exclusives like free Christmas novellas, and more. You
can sign up at AmandaDykes.com.
I’m also active on
Instagram and pop into Facebook from time to time, too.
Thank you, Amanda,
for sharing this book with us. It just moved to the top of my to-be-read list.
Readers, here’s a
link to the book.
https://www.amazon.com/All-Lost-Places-Amanda-Dykes/dp/0764239503/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1J51MJ8K753PX&keywords=All+the+Lost+Places&qid=1681399943&s=books&sprefix=all+the+lost+places%2Cstripbooks%2C116&sr=1-1
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