Throughout Sleep, Pace discovers various ways to deal with the effects of insomnia – in large part harmfully chemical, offering only fleeting comfort. What research did you make into the experience of insomniacs and the other types of habits sufferers form to cope with the absence of sleep?

My own interest in sleep disorders actually started when I developed one of my own. What David Pace suffers from is essentially an extreme form of the condition I myself was eventually diagnosed with, narcolepsy, which, contrary to common conceptions, is less about excessive sleep than about the breakdown of the normal patterns of sleep that most people take for granted. A lot of my research, then, was first hand, including the sorts of sleep studies Pace goes through and the medications he ends up taking. Along the way I became fascinated with the whole subject of sleep and the role it plays in everything from forming memories and consolidating learning to solving problems and downgrading aggression.

Although in my own case I’ve been able to manage my condition pretty successfully, things don’t turn out quite as well for David Pace.

Sleep chronicles the writer’s block of main character David Pace while working on the follow-up to his successful debut book on the fall of the Roman Empire. Yet, unlike other books on authors struggling with a creative block, Sleep takes Pace to much darker, self-destructive places. How do you cope with writer’s block, and what methods have you found to re-open the creative floodgates? Did you struggle at any time with the completion of Sleep?

I’d say it has been the case with all of my books that I’ve been pretty amazed that I actually finished them. It is probably true, though, that I struggled a bit more with Sleep than with some of the others. In part, no doubt, that was because of my own sleep disorder, though the bigger issue was that the character of David Pace came to me somewhat out of the blue, and I had to dig deep to be able to follow him to the dark places he seemed to want to lead me to.

While I don’t think I have ever really reached a point with any of my own books where I have been as blocked as David Pace becomes, there is always that stage in every book where I get bogged down or begin to lose confidence. The only solution then, in my experience, is to keep at it, and to remember that I’ve been in that place before and have always got through it.

Sleep takes a candid look into the world of academia and a set of twisted faculty relationships among professors at the small university where Pace teaches. Adulterous, back-handed, and emotionally stunted, the actions of Pace and his colleagues suggest a somewhat doubtful view of academic pursuits in the development of well-rounded relationships. Does too much focus on the intellectual side of life affect ones emotional capabilities?

I’m not sure that the world of academia is any more prone to back-handedness or emotional stunting than any other work environment. It may be simply that we expect more of academia exactly because it is supposed to be a place of reason and learning and higher ideals. In the end, though, academics are just the same fallible humans we find everywhere, capable of the same virtue but also of the same pettiness and vice.

Pace’s son discovers a family heirloom pistol, and the writer soon develops a fascination with firearms and violence. Recent history in particular has been punctuated with tragic bursts of civilian bloodshed involving guns. What changes should we make to deal with gun violence and the ease of procuring arms?

I am certainly an advocate of strong gun control, though I think there is at least a grain of truth in the adage that people kill people, not guns. The deeper question, always, is what leads to our violent urges in the first place, and whether we as a society need to do a better job at understanding violence and finding ways to sublimate and channel it. One of the underlying themes of Sleep is precisely that violence has always been with us, and that we ignore at our peril the potential that so many of us have to revert to it.

In its final act, Sleep takes a drastic change in setting to battle-scarred Middle East, Pace’s ultimate descent into the world of violence. As a part of the book’s plot, this change of setting comes as somewhat of a surprise, albeit quite a page-turner. What inspired you to end Pace’s story for your readers there?

Sleep really grew out of its ending. The battle-scarred setting Pace ends up in was the first element of the novel that came to me, and a lot of the writing process was a matter of my figuring out how he got there. Pace tells himself he has come there in the hopes of getting material for his book that might help him get over his writer’s block, but his underlying motivations are much darker. By then he has reached a point where the only time he feels truly awake and alive is when he is in extreme situations. As it happens, he ends up getting more than he bargained for.

Waking Nightmares

256 pages, $30 (hardcover)
Release date September 22, 2015

Nino Ricci’s Sleep follows one insomniac’s downward spiral into adultery, violence, and madness.

On the surface, David Pace’s life seems perfect. Coasting on the notoriety from his bestselling book on the fall of the Roman Empire (fittingly titled Masculine History), he teaches at a Toronto university, on track towards the academic’s dream of untouchable tenure. He also has a beautiful, intellectual wife and sweet-hearted young son.

Behind the shutters of his remodelled dream home, however, everything is a battlefield for the protagonist of Nino Ricci’s Sleep – love, academia, sex, and family. Having long suffered from sleep deprivation, Pace experiences occasional narcoleptic fissures in time, sleepwalking moments gone from his memory. This sleepwalking state isn’t limited to his physical self, either. Trapped in a tense, competitive marriage, and unable to break through his crippling writer’s block to finish the follow-up to his monolithic first work, Pace dives head-first towards drug-addled oblivion.

Following an indeterminate diagnosis, Pace’s initial prescriptions of Ritalin and Prozac (with a Viagra chaser to counter the libido-killing properties of the latter) give way to a reliance on sodium oxybate – known in club and drug-taking circles as GHB. The discovery of a Mussolini-era pistol – a twisted family heirloom that later finds its way into the hands of his young son – awakens Pace’s fascination with firearms and a taste for violence that soon runs rampant.

Despite Pace’s once-celebrated intellect, Sleep chronicles a life overturned by academic disgrace, insatiable adultery and, with no bridge left unburned, a graphic and frantic finale in the war-torn Middle East. As Ricci eloquently puts it, there are two halves to each brain: one dominates loudly, and the other is usually ignored. In the case of David Pace, these opposing halves leave a man entirely at war not only with those around him, but with himself.

Discussion Points for Your Book Club

Delve deeper with these five Book Club Discussion points for Nino Ricci’s Sleep:

1. Sleep obviously provides physical rest, but what role does it play in emotional and spiritual rejuvenation? To what extent can Pace blame his problems on his insomnia?

2. We’re given insight into Pace’s teaching methods through a scene in which he shocks his students with a comparison between Rome’s system of slavery and America’s own dark history. What do you think of his approach? Is it fair to put students on the spot so abruptly, and what does that achieve?

3. Following a move to the U.S., Ricci outlines how easy it is to purchase a firearm with little more than a quick background check. Does he make a case for one country’s system versus the other? How are guns perceived differently in Canadian and American culture?

4. After a father-son visit to the firing range, Pace imagines bonding with his son through a shared love of guns. On a flirtatious night out with a new colleague, he introduces her to the exhilarating effects of GHB. Why are so many of Pace’s relationships built on faulty foundations? Does he manage a true connection with anyone?

5. By Sleep’s third act, Pace is working as a journalist in an unnamed city in the Middle East (the mention of lapsed Soviet involvement in the area suggests Afghanistan). He is chasing an interview with a local warlord, but instead encounters a group of child soldiers armed to the teeth. What insights can we draw from the fascination with weapons shared by several characters throughout the book?

576 pages, $35 (hardcover)
Release date September 1, 2015

The tangled web of Jonathan Franzen’s Purity crosses borders and timelines, taking us from present-day California to the jungles of Bolivia, then back to the 1980s and life under flailing Communist rule in the German Democratic Republic. While on the surface the novel focuses on a young woman’s search for her father, Purity creates a world of incredible chance and coincidence, with a mad puppet master behind the scenes pulling strings not entirely under his control.

Denied the knowledge of her family history by her hermitic yet loving cabin-dwelling mother, Pip (born Purity) Tyler has long lived in the shadows of half-truths and lies. While carving out a meagre existence in the activist squats of Oakland – and carrying the back-breaking weight of $130,000 in student loans – Pip crosses paths with a close associate of Andreas Wolf, a Julian Assange-esque celebrity internet watchdog who heads up The Sunlight Project. Invited for an internship at Wolf’s safe-haven jungle complex in Bolivia, she agrees, in part for promised access to his team of experts and their programs to track down her bloodline. Wolf’s interest in her, however, comes from a darker place.

Through the course of Pip’s search, Purity weaves an intriguing tapestry of characters whose tangential connection to one another often proves monumental. As the story curls back and upon itself, the deceits unravel to bring together a billion-dollar trust fund, the unsolved murder of a misogynist Stasi informant, and a missing U.S. nuclear warhead. For the cast of Purity, the pains of unfulfilled love controlled by circumstances both real and self-imposed are always heartbreakingly present. Like a skilled carpenter of intricate wooden trick boxes, Franzen shines in his mastery of connecting these elements into a cohesive, shining whole that holds its secrets tight.

Discussion Points for Your Book Club

Leap in deeper with these five Book Club Discussion points for Jonathan Franzen’s Purity:

1. When we first meet Pip, she treats the world with immense mistrust. How does she deal with her trust issues while she’s faced with deceit at nearly every turn? Does the truth being her any relief or renew her faith in humankind?

2. The end of the GDR came with the forced opening of the regime’s files for a curious, angry populace – in essence, this is what organizations like WikiLeaks and The Sunlight Project aim to do to governments that have wronged their people. How important are these types of leaks? Should all government operations be transparent? What is the value of some forms of government secrecy?

3. Are figures like Julian Assange and Andreas Wolf heroic, or is their influence problematic? How does Franzen blend the backstories of fictional people and their real-world equivalents in the creation of his characters?

4. At its midway point, Purity suddenly shifts from third-person narration to a first-person voice. Why do you think the author did this? Was he successful? Why does this character’s inner voice merit being heard, and how does it affect the story being told?

5. Many of the interactions between characters in Purity are driven by a sense of duty and self-imposed obligation, with both positive and negative results. What are the different ways in which the characters view these obligations, and are any of them successfully fulfilled?

IRISH SODA BREAD

Ingredients

450g plain flour
1 level tsp bread soda
2 level tsps cream of tartar
big pinch of salt
1 tblsp white sugar
25g margarine
half pint milk
a handful of raisins (optional – they make for a sweeter, teatime loaf)

Method

• Pre-heat oven to 400°F/200°C/Gas 6
• Sprinkle flour onto a round baking tray
• Sieve flour, bread soda, cream of tartar and salt into a bowl. Add sugar after sieving and mix through
• Rub in the margarine until the mix is like bread crumbs
• Add milk and mix to make a soft dough
• Turn onto a lightly floured board and knead a little
• Turn over and shape into a round. Place the dough onto the floured baking tray
• Cut a deepish cross into the loaf
• Bake for 45 minutes
• Remove from oven and tap underneath, if there’s a hollow sound, the loaf is done
• Cool on a wire tray, covering with a tea towel to give a softer crust
• Slather with butter and eat!

1. The Homestead, 280 Main Street – This yellow mansion, built by Emily’s grandfather, was the poet’s home for most of her life. She was born and died there. Now it is one half of the Emily Dickinson Museum. Visitors can enjoy a tour and stand in the light-filled bedroom where Emily wrote and lowered baskets of gingerbread from her window to waiting children. The museum has a wonderful shop for all things Emily – books, t-shirts, notecards, posters, fridge magnets and dolls.

2. The Evergreens, Main Street – This Italianate villa lies across the garden from The Homestead and is the other half of the Emily Dickinson Museum. This was the home of Emily’s brother Austin and his wife Susan, who was Emily’s dearest friend. This is a house of atmosphere – it retains its Victorian décor and much of Austin and Sue’s paintings and furniture.

3. Amherst History Museum, 67 Amity Street – Everybody is familiar with Emily’s white dress and this lovely museum houses it. The dress, known as a wrapper or house dress, is made of dimity, has handy pockets and a row of mother-of-pearl buttons. It is housed in a glass case. (The Emily Dickinson Museum displays a replica of the same dress.)

4. West Cemetery, Triangle Street – The graveyard where Emily is buried is a tree-filled oasis off North Pleasant Street. Here you can see the Amherst History Mural with Emily at its heart. Here too is the Dickinson family plot, bounded by a black wrought iron fence, where Emily rests with her parents and sister. Brother Austin is buried at Wildwood Cemetery. Fans leave mementos on and beside Emily’s grave, including toys, flowers and handwritten notes.

5. Jones Library, 43 Amity Street – Go to the library to view the Emily Dickinson Room, which houses a large collection of Dickinson related items, including an eclectic exhibition of Emily-related memorabilia. You can see, among many things, Emily’s original calling card, first editions of her posthumously published poetry collections and a set of cameo buttons that belonged to the poet.

256 pages, $20 (trade paperback)
Release date July 14, 2015

An Irish immigrant, 17-year-old Ada enters the kitchen of the Dickinson house and is immediately intrigued by the reclusive Emily. Over time, the two women spend countless hours baking together. Baking was a beloved pastime of the enigmatic poet; she famously lowered baskets of gingerbread to neighbourhood children from a window. While Ada fills her life with service, Emily finds solace in poetry. When shocking violence rocks Ada’s life of servitude, Emily’s agoraphobia and the class realities of the period test the women’s already unlikely friendship. Miss Emily questions what freedoms can be enjoyed by either woman, making for thought-provoking reading. While Ada is invisibly chained to the kitchen, Emily smuggles in Dostoyevsky books amid her father’s beliefs that women should not be overly educated so as not to “jostle the mind.”

Told through first-person narrative that switches between Emily and Ada, Miss Emily succeeds in portraying the class (and for Irish-American immigrants of the period, racial) differences between the two women and the worlds they come from. The book reads as Downton Abbey in miniature, relocated to New England.

O’Connor clearly has affection for her subject, who herself reveres Elizabeth Barrett Browning and George Eliot and keeps a well-read Emily Brontë book on her bedside table. O’Connor’s biggest tribute towards Miss Emily‘s titular heroine, however, is her Dickinson-esque economy of words and a deeply shared love of language.

Despite its brisk 256 pages, Miss Emily makes a memorable first impression for O’Connor and charmingly adds to Dickinson’s enigma. In Emily’s own (imagined-by-O’Connor) words, “There is no better secret keeper than a Dickinson; we are able to close around our skeletons as snug as a shroud.”

Discussion Points for Your Book Club

1. Ada Concannon moves to America at the young age of 17 and straight into service “downstairs” in Emily Dickinson’s stately home. Consider and compare the differences between the famine-stricken Ireland of her birth with a new life in the United States.

2. How does the alternate first-person narration between Ada and Emily affect the way in which the story is told? How much does their individual perspective shade in and change the story’s events?

3. Descriptive passages in Miss Emily often refer to the sense of smell. How effective are these references in creating the story’s atmosphere?

4. While Emily Dickinson was a real, oft-researched and written about historical figure, Ada is the fictional creation of Nuala O’Connor. When blending fiction and reality, does the author have any special obligation to the historical figure when placing them in new relationships with imagined characters?

5. Letters between Dickinson and her sister-in-law Susan Gilbert suggest more than mere in-law friendliness between the two women. How does Miss Emily explore the possibility of a closer connection?