Does your past career in medicine provide inspiration for writing?
This is the first book in which I’ve introduced a medical backdrop, and it was quite fun and satisfying to tie together my two disparate professions.
I think I was able to navigate the territory and the language with ease, but more than anything - which would be applicable to all my books - is that my time as a doctor gave me an understanding of human nature, which is something I drill into when creating characters.
Has it made you more empathic?
Often when people are unwell, they’re at their most honest, they’re stripped of all artifice, and for me, it was always an amazing privilege and very humbling to journey alongside someone when they were sick.
As a doctor, I think you often need to slip into the skin of another, and I think it’s the same with creating characters in novels. You need to try to view the world through another’s eyes.
How has your childhood growing up during apartheid in South Africa influenced your writing?
So much of that time informed my career choices and what I’m drawn to writing about. I think we were sensitised to the terrible issues of racial prejudice and injustice. I’ve always, as a result, been drawn to the underdog story.
I’m fascinated particularly by people forced to the margins of society, whether that’s because of their race, culture, sexuality or neurodiversity. Often those people are depicted in stereotypes, and the challenge I pose to myself is to bear witness to the fuller story.
If you were to describe The Doctor’s Wife to a reader, what would you say?
It’s a story about a long-standing friendship between two couples that is shattered first by illness, and then an unexplained violent death.
The book opens with a mother being diagnosed with metastatic brain cancer, and we watch, alongside her husband and teenage boys, as they grapple with this diagnosis and the frightening personality changes she is undergoing.
Do you think more novels should be set in New Zealand?
We always have this notion of books being much sexier being set in New York or London, and yes, it’s lovely to do that, but I actually think there’s something really valuable about setting books in a place that will resonate with people because they recognise it.
What does your writing process look like? Do you sit down at the computer every day?
It really began when I took time out of medicine to be with my family and to write. I was so aware that I wanted to use my time wisely and carefully, so I would drop the kids at school when they were young, switch on the answering machine and just write, so now I’ve kept that. It’s very much about showing up every day - I think sometimes people think an author just sits down when there’s inspiration.
I take the dogs for a walk first thing in the morning, and then I sit down every day and write until 2pm or 3pm in the afternoon.
What are you currently working on? Are you able to give a preview of your next novel?
Well, I’ve never written a series, but I’ve had quite a bit of interest in the detective duo in The Doctor’s Wife, so in fact I’ve been asked to write a second book in the series, where they will be solving another mystery.
It will be set in New Zealand as well.
Will this be your first time visiting Whanganui?
The first time I was down there was about three or four years ago when we kayaked the beautiful Whanganui River. I was staggered - it’s almost Jurassic Park-like, those huge banks rising up. I loved the history of the Bridge to Nowhere.
I’m really looking forward to returning.
Eva de Jong is a reporter for the Whanganui Chronicle covering health stories and general news. She began as a reporter in 2023.
