Editor’s Note: This exchange is part of a series of brief interviews with emerging writers of recent or forthcoming books. If you enjoyed it, please visit other interviews in the I’ve Got Questions feature.
- What’s the title of your book? Fiction? Nonfiction? Poetry? Who is the publisher and what’s the publication date?
The book is fiction: As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back: A Novel (Black Rose Writing, March 2023)
- In a couple of sentences, what’s the book about?
As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back is a-girl-and-her-backpack story with a Tai chi spine. Carlie is a child sexual trauma survivor. As a teen, she steals ten thousand dollars and runs away to Asia. Through Hong Kong, the Philippines, Bali, and Thailand, she’s a mess: smoking, drinking, sleeping with men who do drugs. Landing in Tokyo, she falls in with an international crew of Tai chi-practicing backpackers and sets off to find the self-respect taken from her as a child and the healthy sexuality she desires.
- What’s the book’s genre (for fiction and nonfiction) or primary style (for poetry)?
Literary fiction.
- What’s the nicest thing anyone has said about the book so far?
National Book Award judge Jamie Ford (Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet) wrote, “A rare novel that shows how easily childhood trauma can be internalized and normalized, distorting our coming-of-age. Hall walks us through a maze to a better, more hopeful place. An outstanding debut.”
Oh! And this from The Kavanagh Sisters—Joyce, June, and Paula—founders of Ireland’s Count Me In!Survivors of Sexual Abuse Standing Together for Change: “Alle C. Hall may never know how many people she will help with this novel.”
- What book or books is yours comparable to or a cross between? [Is your book like Moby Dick or maybe it’s more like Frankenstein meets Peter Pan?]
The Beach from the 1990s comes to mind. Mashing that up with another from that same era, for continuity’s sake: The Lovely Bones. Or She’s Come Undone.
- Why this book? Why now?
Some people think the progress we’ve made in respecting female sexual autonomy, as demonstrated by #MeToo, is so over. I think we’re only beginning. But readers want to look at surviving sexual trauma in a new way. We are ready for stories of healing without revenge or confrontation; of forgiveness and compassion (or not); and of parenting post-trauma. Of a true, life-affirming mental health triumph.
Praised for its psychological accuracy, As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back is featured in staff libraries at leading treatment centers such as The Meadows, as well as by The Harborview Abuse and Trauma Center.
- Other than writing this book, what’s the best job you’ve ever had?
I worked as the national sales and marketing manager for Choice Organic Teas. I went into to the position after working for a toy and novelty company that imported nothing but plastic goods from China. It was a joy to step away from that world into certified organic teas; as nurturing as coming to an office every day that was scented by bergamot (the lemony flavor in Earl Grey) or green tea with toasted brown rice.
Here’s how to make a perfect cup of tea. (I do so when writing and I hit a wall.)
- What do you want readers to take away from the book?
Hope. And a few belly laughs.
I was thrilled when one Amazon reviewer wrote: “There is a lot of humor in this book. Carlie isn’t a noble or long-suffering heroine. She is more of a kick-ass and break things until she figures it out type—which makes for a way better read.”
- What food and/or music do you associate with the book?
A little bit of a spoiler alert:
Food: Asian noodles. Carlie eats fried noodles when she’s traveling across SE Asia, or, eats bites of them. Cross-addiction is rife among survivors. As she slides into alcoholism, so she goes into anorexia.
Tokyo becomes a place of healing. Down the line, Carlie will eat noodles with a man she’s really fallen for. I don’t make a big deal out of it. Still, the event marks a moment of improving functionality in her progression.
—End spoiler—
All that to say: she eats chilled noodles sprinkled with sesame seeds and flecks of crispy sea vegetable. You dip the noodles by the chopstick-full into a tangy, soy-based sauce. The noodles are served on a thin, bamboo mat, which holds them just slightly off the plate, keeping them from getting mushy.
The dish zaru soba if you use buckwheat noodles and zaru udon if you use—well, udon.
You probably can’t tell that I started as a food writer, after studying Zen temple- and Japanese home cooking.
Music: The Indigo Girls. Particularly “Fugitive” from Swamp Ophelia. However, a good number of their early- and mid-90s tunes float under As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back. For a few really challenging scenes, I played one or another of their songs, then sat down to write out the feeling I was surfing. I’d never used music before, and I haven’t done so since. Don’t know why.
- What book(s) are you reading currently?
From the free library up the street, I just picked up, Girls with Bright Futures. “Just” as in: on the way home from Walgreens this morning. Last week, I dropped off three copies of As Far as You Can Go Before You Have to Come Back. I was checking to see if they were gone—which they were!
Learn more about Alle on her website.
Follow her on Facebook and Substack.
Buy the book from the publisher (Black Rose Writing), Bookshop.org, or Amazon.
