Kat Harlton
With special thanks to Simon and Schuster Canada.
The Night We Lost Him, the new novel by Laura Dave (on sale September 17, 2024) is a domestic thriller about two siblings who, following the suspicious death of the family patriarch, join forces to find out what happened to their father, unravelling a larger mystery about who he really was.
Laura Dave is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of several novels, including The Last Thing He Told Me, also an Apple+ TV series adaptation featuring Jennifer Garner. Her novels have been translated into thirty-eight languages, and six of them, including The Night We Lost Him, have been optioned for film and television.
I had the opportunity to chat with Laura about her new thriller, writing character arcs, and more.
Kat: Nora and Sam, the estranged siblings in ‘The Night We Lost Him’, are brought together by their father’s secret. How does their relationship evolve throughout the story?
Laura: While there are many love stories in The Night We Lost Him, the familial love story between Nora and Sam is one of my favorites. At the beginning of the novel, Nora and Sam have almost no relationship—mostly because their father kept them siloed from each other while they were growing up. As they join forces to get to the bottom of their father’s mysterious death, their relationship evolves in a way that is surprising to both of them and alters their lives.
Kat: Liam Noone, the enigmatic father, kept a secret for over fifty years. What motivates someone to carry such a burden for so long?
Laura: We often think of secrets as what we keep from other people, but what I was also intrigued about exploring in The Night We Lost Him were the secrets we keep from ourselves. Those secrets have a special kind of power. I wanted that secret to define how Liam organized his life and what eventually set him free.
Kat: Your writing style is known for its emotional depth. Can you share any insights into how you crafted the emotional arcs of the characters?
Laura: Thank you for saying that! For me, a novel always starts with an emotional question that I want to explore. For The Night We Lost Him, that question was: what does it mean to be the witness to someone’s life? What is the cost if you lose (or give away) the person for whom you most want to be that witness?
Answering this question for each of my main characters helped me dive into who they were and what they most valued. It was also such fertile ground for a mystery that is focused on secrets, love and grief.
Kat: As readers, we become witnesses to the characters’ lives. What do you hope readers take away from this novel?
Laura: I love getting notes from readers in which they say they couldn’t put the book down, that they read it in one sitting, and that they can’t wait to share it with a friend. All of which is to say that I hope readers take joy from The Night We Lost Him—and have that fantastic experience we all love when you can’t put a book down, and you simultaneously don’t want it to end.
Kat: Can you talk about your experiences in creating and working on the Apple+ TV series adaptation of your #1 NYT bestselling Reese’s Book Club Pick, The Last Thing He Told Me, starring Jennifer Garner? and what it was like working with your husband, Oscar Award winning screenwriter Josh Singer, who also co-wrote and co-produced the series?
Laura: It was wonderful and joyful! Jen Garner (and the entire cast) are the most talented and kind. I’m actually finishing work on the sequel to The Last Thing He Told Me and we are about to start filming season 2.
Connect with Laura Dave: https://lauradave.com