Human frailties and clandestine lives are laid bare in this finely-balanced portrait of two estranged families coming together to celebrate a surprise wedding in Maine. Lauren Aliza Green’s debut The World After Alice is published in the UK today by Michael Joseph.
Hi Lauren! Huge congratulations on today’s UK publication of your debut novel! The World After Alice was published in the US in early July – please tell us how you celebrated your big day! And do you have any plans to visit the UK to meet your readers here?
Thank you! I’m beyond delighted to know that Alice will reach readers overseas. For my release in the US, I took myself on an off-the-grid excursion to Alaska. Everything feels small beside the mountains, insignificant in a way I find comforting. What better medicine than nature to put things in perspective? I do hope to make it out to the UK—hopefully sooner rather than later.
What inspired you to write The World After Alice, and which came first for you: plot, characters, setting, or something completely different?
I am a character-first type of writer. My fascination lies in people and their approach to the world. The plot emerged much later. In fact, the first draft of this book contained no wedding at all, if you can believe it. I merely had this cast of characters who kept revealing themselves to me in surprising ways. Gradually, it became clear that I needed a frame to hold their lives together and provide a reason for their reunion after twelve years.
That’s when the wedding storyline came into focus. I was intrigued by how the wedding would showcase the characters’ private struggles versus their public personas—an exaggerated portrayal of the very balancing act they’ve maintained for years.
At the heart of the story lie terrible tragedy and loss, which you handle so sensitively. By describing Alice’s final moments in the chilling prologue, you are able to focus the rest of the novel on the impact on those left behind as they gather for this very tense family wedding. How did you plan the structure of your novel and its various timelines?
Structuring a book is, for me, the most challenging part of the process. Have you ever watched someone construct a scaffold? It’s like that. I went back and forth between telling the story chronologically and layering the past and present side by side. Ultimately, I felt that the latter option created a more evocative narrative, one where the various timelines could speak to each other across the gulf of years. Since The World After Alice is essentially a book about consequences, that conversation between sections felt crucial.
The World After Alice is beautifully crafted, and the reader is held fast throughout by the strength of your prose and your highly-relatable characters. Alice’s mother Linnie, narcissistic and selfish, is central to your story – can you tell us a bit about how you built her character?
With Linnie, as with all the characters, it was a process of accretion. Imagine a potter’s wheel where clay is added and added and then moulded into the final version. Part of my project with this book, and perhaps with writing in general, is to make people who might not appear appealing on the surface more coherent and legible to the reader. By staying inside Linnie’s head, you’re made to understand the world through her eyes. She might be selfish and narcissistic, yes, but she also displays moments of grace, clarity, and remorse. I once heard a fellow writer say that all characters should have arrows pointing in multiple directions. I try to remember that when sitting down to work.
What aspects have you enjoyed most, and least, about the process of getting The World After Alice published?
The most enjoyable part is getting to engage with readers. For so long, I was tinkering with the world of my novel in isolation, turning it over in my palm like a marble only I possessed. Being able to invite other people inside it is a gift (albeit a terrifying one). I’m grateful to anyone who spends time with Linnie, Nick, Ezra, Morgan, Caro, Benji, and Alice. I’ll quote Simone Weil here: “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.” As for the least enjoyable parts, that’d be anything publicity-related. I’m an introvert by nature, and a private one at that.
Which novelists influenced your writing, and what do you enjoy reading in your spare time?
I read widely—everything from biographies to poetry collections to historical fiction. I never know what factoids or glimmers of inspiration will work their way into my writing, so if something sounds even mildly interesting, I’ll pick it up. Regarding novelists who influenced my writing, I’d put Elena Ferrante and Virginia Woolf up there. I must say, though, that the writers whose work I don’t resonate with have as significant an impact on me as those whose work I do.
What advice were you given that stuck with you as you embarked on writing your debut novel?
A general rule of thumb is to continue writing until you’ve arrived at something that startles. Write until you’ve reached a place you’ve never been.
Have you started your next project? Can we look forward to another novel, or are you planning something completely different?
Oh, yes—I’m deep in the weeds of a second novel. This one follows three grown siblings as they spar over their father’s beloved art collection. A modern-day King Lear.
And finally, what words of encouragement would you give to anyone thinking of entering the Caledonia Novel Award 2025?
Do it—you have nothing to lose and everything to gain!
(Author photo by Kyle Grier)
caledoniaaward@gmail.com