Sonya Bates asks: ‘Do we ever really know our parents or our grandparents?’ in her new novel
As the world marked the 75th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat, Sonya Bates released her new murder mystery on the almost unspoken story of her father’s time in Hitler’s army.
Books
Don't miss out on the headlines from Books. Followed categories will be added to My News.
As the world marked the 75th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat this month, author SONYA BATES released her new murder mystery — based on the almost unspoken story of her father’s own time in the ranks of Hitler’s army. Today she reveals the inspiration behind the compelling Inheritance of Secrets.
Someone recently asked me: do we ever really know our parents or our grandparents?
It’s a good question and one that the main character, Juliet, grapples with in Inheritance of Secrets.
It also lies at the heart of the inspiration for the novel.
As children, we view our parents from the self-centred perspective of the young; as the source of love, food, shelter and safety; as supervisors and disciplinarians; as a source of comfort and companionship; as someone who picks us up when we fall and rejoices in our accomplishments.
That’s how I viewed my dad.
I didn’t think of him as German, as someone who had grown up with the Hitler Youth, lived his teen years with the fear of being bombed and the knowledge that at 18 he would be drafted and sent to war himself, as an ex-soldier who’d fought for the Nazis in WWII and spent time in a POW camp.
I didn’t even think he had an accent.
I saw him as he was in my present — a quiet, peace-loving man who loved to read, took us camping on school holidays and made amazing potato pancakes from a recipe from his childhood.
I knew the facts, of course. But unless something prompted me to think about it, the facts were irrelevant.
My impression of him changed as I became an adult, moved out of home and had my own family, but it was still focused in the present.
He became the person I talked to about my studies, the one who loaned me money for the down payment on my first house, who celebrated the birth of my children.
I moved away – about as far away from Canada as I could get, to Australia – and when I returned to visit, we’d talk. Not about the war or his childhood, but ordinary things – life. I started thinking about how different his early years had been from mine.
And how he’d got through it.
At 18, I’d been completely dependent on my parents, living at home, going to university. I couldn’t in my wildest imagination think about what it would have been like to be drafted and forced to go to war; quiet, shy girl that I was.
I’d always thought of him and me as having similar personalities. How had he done it? I couldn’t reconcile the image I had of my father with the 18-year-old boy who’d had to take up arms and make his own way to the front.
A GERMAN IN AN ALLIED COUNTRY
The development of the character of Karl was a gradual thing, springing from these thoughts and taking shape as I learned more about post-war immigration to Australia. Like Karl, my dad also moved away from Germany — to America in the 1950s.
What would it have been like for him? A German moving to one of the Allied countries, not long after the war had ended.
And so was born the character of Karl, a young German caught up in a terrible period of history. I knew I wanted to write about him, I just didn’t know what form the story would take. I mulled on the idea for a long time. Karl was a historical character, so I knew it had to be historical, and I knew he’d emigrated to Australia, so I thought it would be a migrant story, perhaps a family saga.
I researched, learned more about the time period and the life that Karl would have led, what he would have experienced.
But I couldn’t start writing.
Beyond the character of Karl, there was nothing. I worked on other things, other stories. I researched some more. And then I had a vision of the first scene in the book – Juliet at the morgue going to identify the bodies of her grandparents. And I knew that the grandfather was Karl, my young German soldier, and that something in his past had come back to haunt him.
I won’t say it was easy from then on, but I knew where I was going.
I had a beginning – the young Karl — and I had an ending – the solving of the murder. Karl had a secret. I didn’t know what it was at the time, but I knew I could find out.
Sonya Bates’ terrific new book Inheritance of Secrets is out now, published by HarperCollins Australia.
Equally gripping is our Book of the Month, Jeffery Deaver’s The Goodbye Man. It’s yours as a Sunday Book Club reader for 30 per cent off with the code GOODBYE at Booktopia.
And do visit the SBC Facebook group to discuss Sonya’s secret, Jeffery’s tips on writing a hit thriller and much more.