Author Insights with Soon Wiley

I had a great opportunity to ask a few questions to author Soon Wiley, who recently published his debut novel When We Fall Apart.

Thank you Soon for your time and insights!

As I was reading your novel, I couldn’t help but feel that some of the themes (loneliness, longing for connection) were things we are all too familiar with that were only emphasized by the pandemic. Did the pandemic affect your writing of When We Fell Apart and how so?

I was mostly doing final revisions when the pandemic hit. These revisions were very focused on plot and narrative structure and less on theme. I suspect that the themes of loneliness and longing for connection were present in the book long before the pandemic started. These are themes that crop up quite a bit in literature, and I suspect that part of the reason for that is because writing is a lonely business! Overall, I think the pandemic was actually helpful to me as a writer. Selfishly, I was happy to work from home because it meant I had more time to write. Not having to commute meant I could dedicate more time in the mornings to my writing.

Seoul is almost like an additional character in the story; why was Seoul the perfect place to tell this story?

Photo courtesy of Rachel EH Photography
via Penguin Random House

Setting a story in a city is always fun because there are so many directions you can go as writer. You aren't really limited by the setting, if that makes sense. When I first started working on the novel, it was always going to be set in Seoul. It's the reason all the characters of the book end up together. I was interested in exploring how one city can mean so many different things to different people. In another sense, Seoul is also representative of what these characters want out of life. It's symbolic of their biggest hopes, dreams, and fears. Lastly, I also wanted to set it in Seoul because the city is both distinctly Korean and international/global, which is a characteristic that I think encapsulates the novel quite well.

To learn more about Soon Wiley, visit his website. When We Fell Apart is available through Penguin Random House.