Borgia Bride
by Jeanne Kalogridis
List Price: $14.95
Pages: 544
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0312341385
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Jeanne Kakigrudis lives with her partner in California, where they share a house with two dogs. She is the author of numerous dark fantasy and historical novels.
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Q: What was the inspiration for your book?
JK: After reading the wonderful, evocative biography, Lucrezia Borgia, by Maria Bellonci, I became fascinated by Lucrezia's dual nature and her ambiguous relationship with her family; she both desperately hated and desperately loved her father and brother. Her father, Pope Alexander VI, was manipulative, murderous, and cunning; he sexually molested his daughter and used her politically in the coldest fashion. Yet at the same time, he showed her genuine love and caring. Her brother, Cesare, was ruthlessly ambitious, vicious, and merciless to those he perceived as enemies. He used Lucrezia as well to further his own aims, while professing great love for her. This strangest of family dynamics was impossible for a novelist to ignore
Q: Why did you pick Sancha of Aragon to tell the story rather than Lucrezia herself?
JK: I began by attempting to write a novel from Lucrezia's point of view, yet her actions were at times so puzzling they were impossible to justify. I realized that the best way to present each member in the family was to use an outside observer and Sancha, the wife of the youngest Borgia, Jofre, seemed the perfect choice. Daughter of a king, she came from a family marked by cruelty and madness
Q: Do you scrupulously adhere to historical fact in your novels, or do you take liberties if the story can benefit from the change?
JK: I scrupulously adhere to historical fact. If a fact is recorded, I don't contradict it. I do take liberties in writing possible "scenes behind the scenes," and in giving the characters motivation to explain their actions. We can never really know what the characters were thinking or what they really intended; that's where fiction enters the story
Q: Why do you think readers are so drawn to historical fiction?
JK: Because history is fascinating and fact is often stranger than fiction. (That's why I felt I had to put in a note explaining that some of the more outrageous events in the book were fact and not the product of my imagination.) Also, readers of historical fiction love to learn, and this permits us to do so in a very enjoyable way
Q: Sancha and Lucrezia were strong women in their time. How true to history is that depiction?
JK: Actually, Renaissance Italy was filled with strong women. While women were married off without consideration for their feelings, they owned their own property, earned the respect of their peers, and many widows took over their husband's position as ruler of their estate. Caterina Sforza, who is mentioned in the book, actually gave direct orders to the soldiers defending her fortress from Cesare's army; in fact, she assisted in its defense, and shouted encouragement to her men from the battlements
Q: Who are your favorite authors?
JK: Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter, Philippa Gregory, Tracy Chevalier, and Chuck Palahniuk.
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Excerpted from Borgia Bride © Copyright 2010 by Jeanne Kalogridis. Reprinted with permission by St. Martin's Griffin. All rights reserved.
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