2 minutes with… Anna Carey

Our Song by Anna Carey is a heartfelt and nostalgic story of second chances and following dreams. When Laura’s ex-bandmate Tadhg gets in touch again after years, there’s an opportunity for them to finish something they started a long time ago. But things are never that simple, right? We caught up with Anna to find out more about her new book.

Where did the inspiration for this novel come from?

From the start I’ve said I wanted to write a book about falling in love with a boy and falling in love with being in a band. I really wanted to capture what it feels like to be part of a band and a songwriting team, what it really feels like to play a gig or feel a song come together. As well as being a love story, Our Song was always going to be a book about making music. And it was always going to be a book about a woman who couldn’t have kids and ended up with a different sort of happy ending.

There’s a lovely sense of nostalgia to this story – the return to a former kindred spirit, the return to a passion for music given up on as part of ‘growing up and living in the real world’. But stepping back into our past isn’t always so easy! Can you talk to us about this in the story?

I read all my old college-era diaries and lots of old letters when I was working on the book, and it was a surprisingly intense experience! I really liked writing about that stage in my characters’ lives because it’s an era where you’re definitely an adult but you’re experiencing a lot of big life things for the first time and everything really is very intense. And also, if you’re lucky, you get to spend a lot of time just hanging out with your friends in a way you can’t later on. It didn’t make me want to go back there – I’m way too exhausted now for all the drama! – but it did make me look very fondly at my and my friends’ young, messy ’90s selves.

You have seven successful YA novels to your name and this is your first aimed at adults. How was the writing process and experience different for you?

I really, really loved writing this book. I’m very proud of my books for younger readers, and Irish children’s literature is something that really needs to be supported. But I did find it liberating writing for adults, because when writing for young readers you have to be very conscious of your responsibility to the reader to an extent that isn’t the same when writing for fellow adults. Another difference in writing for adults is that you hear directly from many more readers, and you’re much more conscious of them! But it’s been really lovely getting messages from people who loved the book, especially women who related to the infertility storyline.

You created a playlist to go with this book but if you had to highlight just three songs that capture this novel, what would they be?

Ha, I have not one but two playlists for this book! I made one just for me while writing it and another for the public featuring more songs that actually appear in the book. And I wrote and recorded the two songs that Tadhg and Laura write in the book, which appear on the audiobook. But if I have to bring it down to three songs…

‘All Day and All of the Night’ by the Kinks

‘Father to a Sister of Thought’ by Pavement

‘Nobody Loves You More’ by Kim Deal

Hear the full playlist here.

Hear Anna discussing her book as part of DBF After Dark Festival Club: Echoes on the Page, Friday 7 November, along with Brendan Mac Evilly and Maggie Armstrong, in conversation with Tony Clayton-Lea. BOOK TO JOIN US