Exclusive interview with author Sarah Rayner and a review of her novel about how an affair affects two women
Rating: 3 stars
“Telling the story of an affair from the perspectives of the wife and the mistress in alternating chapters, the novel is also about another affair…my love affair with New York,” says The Other Half author Sarah Rayner.
“The Other Half was first published in the UK in 2001. But it wasn’t until a while after my third novel, One Moment, One Morning, became an international bestseller that I found an American publisher for The Other Half.”
A cross between women’s fiction and chick-lit, The Other Half is a story of loss and betrayal. The story is told from both women’s points of view. Chloe has the excitement of an affair, then starts to fall in love with James, whose wife Maggie is having issues with her family life and feels separated her husband. Chloe has no morals about having an affair with a married man, so the emotional stakes are not there for the reader. It’s Maggie who has emotional and personal growth in the book.
We meet Chloe Appleton as an ambitious magazine writer out to start her own magazine. James Slater, the publisher of the magazine she currently works for, is intrested in her new magazine…and in her. Chloe knows he’s married, and that’s fine as she fears commitment. Maggie is a respected food writer and suburban housewife who doesn’t see her husband very much as he works late. James doesn’t want a second child.
“The origins of The Other Half can be traced back to the day I won the lottery,” says Rayner. “Years ago I won what would now be at least $5,000 in a charity raffle, and I used the money to go on holiday to New York. I went with a gay friend of mine, Ron, and we painted the Big Apple red, if that’s not mixing metaphors too much. I fell in love with New York and it was quite simply, the best holiday I have ever had…with apologies to my husband, our honeymoon does come close second. When I was there I kept a journal.
“A while later, when I felt drawn to write my first novel, I got back in touch with the people I’d met on that first trip, and told them I planned to write a story that spanned both New York and London,” says Rayner. “I had a yen to spend some time in Manhattan writing it. Through a home-swap website we found a woman not only keen to exchange her New York apartment for my London one, but who also ran a writers’ cooperative in the East Village. Her name was Donna Brodie, and she arranged for me to have desk space at The Writers’ Room. It was here, using my original journal as a basis, much of The Other Half was drafted.”
“Between writing The Other Half 15 years ago and now I’ve learned a lot,” says Rayner. “So The Other Half that’s now being published by St. Martin’s Press is very different from the original. I’ve not just updated it. I’ve also cut and crafted it using all I’ve discovered since….a pithier, punchier writing style. Certainly I think my love for New York still shines through.”
“I am someone who likes instant gratification,” says Raynor. “I will freely admit this 15 year wait has been a streeeeeeeeeetch for me. Each novel has its own journey to make. A bit like children, some are high achievers and get published relatively quickly and easily, others need nurturing and take longer to find their way onto the shelves. With respect to The Other Half, the challenge has been that I have had to be patient. I first started writing the novel in New York in 1999.”
Rayner has a new book coming out in the UK. Rayner was born in London and lives in Brighton.
The Other Half by Sarah Rayner. Hardback: Hardcover: 304 pages, Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin (March 25, 2014), Language: English, ISBN-13: 978-1250045591 $27. Kindle version: File Size: 774 KB, Print Length: 302 pages, Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1250042100, Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin (March 25, 2014), Sold by: Macmillan, Language: English, ASIN: B00AW75UHO $ 8.89
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