Bieker’s powerful debut novel is the perfect quarantine read.
Godshot, the debut novel from Chelsea Bieker, came out March 31 a week early.
We just wanted to shake things up a little bit.
Credit: Jessica Keaveny; Catapult
They were ready to go, so why not?
It felt sort of like anything goes now.
Theres really no order, so lets just do whatever we want!
Read on for her insight intoGodshot, which is available now.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Im guessing this was not the climate in which you expected to release this book.
How has that been?
Chelsea Bieker:I mean, its certainly not what I imagined.
So that was strange.
I mean, its been really heartening to see the way that the literary community has rallied.
At the heart is really this story of mothers and daughters.
Why did that speak to you as the sort of soul of this book?
Also, regardless of the situation, Laceys love for her mother almost intensifies as the book goes on.
And thats really my experience my love for my mother never really wavered.
So those were really important cornerstones for me to touch on.
Beyond the female relationships, its a sort of chronicle of womanhood in general.
I mean, it starts with Lacey getting her period.
What did you want to express about the female experience?
And a lot of that is through sort of this underground education and self-education.
When Laceys experiencing things for the first time, its really mysterious, but it shouldnt be.
How did the cult setting serve those ideas?
And having that isolation, it becomes clearer how something like that could really happen.
Especially in these environmental times, where the land is dead.
Did you do a lot of research about cults?
In the beginning I did.
Why was the environmental disaster element so important?
Its an agricultural epicenter.
Its where so much of the worlds food comes from.
And its also a place that is usually very droughted.
Its just part of that place.
Why is this a good book to read while self-isolating?
