ReadWonder: An Inside Look #240 (Author INTERVIEW)

(Author of We Are Wolves)

*Season #ONE (June of 2016 to March of 2017)

*Season #TWO (Summer of 2017)

*Season #THREE (School Year 2017/2018)

*Season #FOUR (Summer/fall of 2018)

*Season #FIVE (School Year 2018/2019)

*Season #SIX (Summer 2019)

*Season #SEVEN (Fall 2019)

*Season #EIGHT (Winter/Spring 2020)

*Season #NINE (Fall 2020)

*Season #TEN (Winter/Spring 2021)

*Season #ELEVEN (Fall 2021)

*Season #TWELVE (Winter/Spring 2022)

*Season #THIRTEEN (Summer 2022)

*Season #FOURTEEN (Fall 2022)

*I'm excited to present season #FIFTEEN with brand new interviews/authors.

*It has been such an honor to connect with authors and "chat" about their novel, characters, and thoughts about the story.

*This is the SIXTH interview in which I'm calling Season #FIFTEEN.

*Thank you to Katrina for being the Two Hundred Fortieth author I've had the pleasure of interviewing. I truly appreciate it.

We Are Wolves

by Katrina Nannestad

(March 8, 2022)

How did you come to know Liesl?
I always wanted three siblings at the centre of my story so that I could explore the way children of different ages might be affected by these events. As I embarked on my research, my main characters Liesl, Otto and Mia started to take shape in my mind. The Wolfskinder survived in horrendously difficult circumstances that challenged (and defeated) many adults, so I knew that Liesl would have to be a strong, kind, determined girl if she was to keep her siblings alive and together. Once I got to know my characters, I took them with me on the rest of my research journey. This brought the facts and events alive as potential elements of their story.

What do you think is Liesl’s most admirable quality?
Her loyalty and love. I know that’s two qualities, but they really are inseparable.
Although We Are Wolves is a story about hardship, endurance and survival, it is ultimately a story of love. We see the love shown by strangers that helps the Wolf siblings survive. And central to the story is Liesl’s fierce love for her siblings that sees her doing whatever it takes to keep them alive – stealing, begging, lying, scavenging, killing animals, even giving up her identity.

Is there anything you wish Liesl would have changed or done differently in her story?
No. Liesl became so real to me during the writing of the story that I feel like I have been true to her personality and the way she would have behaved. Liesl was brave and loyal but she also had moments of despair and fury – like when she attacked Charlotte – which I think needed to be in there for the story and her character to be believable.

How did you research Liesl and the circumstances she found himself in?
I started by devouring all the information I could about the Wolfskinder and their stories. First-person accounts were hard to find. The Wolfskinder were living in Soviet territories after the war, so had had to hide their true German identities, for their own safety and that of the families who helped them. Some were never able to attend school again so writing their personal histories would not have been easy. It wasn’t until the demise of the Soviet Union that many people began to feel safe to talk about their German roots.

Now, of course, the Wolfskinder are elderly and many of these stories have been lost forever. I managed to glean information through articles, blogs, photographs, documentaries, snippets from history books and an autobiography, Abandoned and Forgotten – An Orphan Girl’s Tale of Survival During World War II, by Evelyne Tannehill.  When the trail ran dry, I started chasing after details around the stories of the Wolfskinder - the history of East Prussia and the tumultuous events that surrounded the Red Army occupation at the end of World War 2. I waded through some very dry history books until I happened upon a gem – The Death of East Prussia – War and revenge in Germany’s Easternmost Provinces, by Peter B. Clark.

I watched documentaries, looked at photographs, scrounged information wherever I could find it. Again, I found a very helpful autobiography, Last Minute – Our Escape From East Prussia, by Rosemarie Miles Apsel. This little self-published account describes one girl’s experiences as her family fled their home at the end of the war. It gave fabulous details of what it was like for a child to experience these events. Personal accounts are always the most powerful.

And of course, I honed in on the finer details of Liesl’s life and experiences. I looked at what life would have been like for a German girl living in East Prussia towards the end of the war, including family life, the absent father, schooling, home, food, routines, beliefs, indoctrination, village life. I researched the details of every situation and location Liesl found herself in thereafter – East Prussian dairy farms, forest survival, weather and wildlife, transport systems, Lithuanian Christmas traditions, to name just a few.  My final bit of research, oddly enough, took place after I finished my first draft of the story. I met with a German couple who had both been small children living in the eastern provinces of Germany during World War 2.

They were not Wolfskinder but shared many similar experiences when the war ended - poverty, hunger, prejudice, interrupted education, expulsion from their homes, and the terrifying realization that their parents were powerless to protect them. These lovely people were warm, open and generous in sharing with me, and their stories were very affirming of the way in which I had told my fictional story about Liesl, Otto and Mia Wolf.

Do you and Liesl share any similarities?
Absolutely. I always put something of myself into my main character when writing a book – not on purpose, it just seems to happen.  Like Liesl, I am loyal and kind, I love my family and I was a good girl at a school and home, always eager to please others. As for Liesl’s resilience and determination in the face of danger … Hmmm … I couldn’t possibly say if the similarity would carry on. I don’t think any of us really know how we’d react to such trauma. I hope I’d be strong like Liesl.

What was the hardest scene to write about here?
I cried a lot while writing this story – partly because my characters become so real to me, but also because this story was inspired by true events. Many of the things that happen to Liesl, Otto and Mia in We Are Wolves happened to real children. So there were many scenes that were hard to write! But perhaps the most distressing was the one where the children have to destroy all vestiges of their German identity. Even though they are physically safe, it is the point at which they must abandon any hope of a return to their old life and their family. It’s a kind of giving up, a disappearing, but they are children and have no choice.

Who do you think was Liesl’s biggest supporter and why?
Karl was a great friend. Even though a child himself, Karl was older, stronger, more worldly-wise than Liesl, and we see that it lightens her burden at a time when there is absolutely no adult help at hand. The affection Karl shows Liesl is a glimmer of loveliness and light amidst the sadness, too.

Why do you think some young people are able to demonstrate such strength, courage, and perseverance, while sometimes their adult counterparts cannot?Wow! This is a big question and one which I didn’t find the answer to in all my research. The resilience and survival of the Wolfskinder is what fascinated me when I first read about them. How could these little children survive on their own (sometimes for years) in a war-torn land now occupied by a hostile enemy?

I do wonder if adults sometimes become overwhelmed by their greater understanding of what is going on, what is happening to those around them, and the terrible things that lie ahead. I describe this in the scene where the Wolf family are fleeing in the blizzard ahead of the Red Army, and some of the adults just give up. They stop running, Stop moving. Despair takes over.

I think children are often more flexible than adults. Maybe they better adapt to a rapidly changing world, even if that world is full of danger and deprivation. Or maybe it’s just that children keep going because they don’t know what else to do. How do you make sense of an event that is so big and bad and traumatic? You can’t, so maybe you just carry on the best you can.

I’m really pondering rather than answering this question! But of course, authors don’t have all the answers and stories don’t need to answer all the questions. Life is full of messy situations and unanswered questions, and I love that stories can be a starting point for discussions about complicated issues. I’d love to know my readers’ thoughts on this question. Feel free to send me an email! You can find out how to contact me through my webpage:

www.katrinanannestad.com

What do you think Liesl is doing at the present time?
A number of my readers have asked about what happened to different characters in We Are Wolves after the final page. I always reply that the power is theirs to decide. Authors have the power while they’re writing a story, but once it goes out into the world, the reader is in control. They get to decide the future for each character – unless the author writes a sequel!

But just in case you want a definite answer from me … Liesl would be an elderly woman now. I like to picture her living in a comfortable home where she is visited daily by her many children and grandchildren. I think Otto and Mia might live nearby with their families too. Otto is a retired pilot. Mia is an artist who paints beautiful forest scenes, always with a cow at the centre.

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Monday, February 13, 2023

An Inside Look #240 (Author INTERVIEW)

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