“In Conversation” is an ongoing interview series built around the ways time and weather exist in the life of books and their authors.
(Why time and weather? Because we can’t help ourselves. After all, we’re the folks behind Author Clock and Author Forecast!)
IN SHAKEN TO THE CORE, Joy is a Miami photographer whose “carefully curated life” is interrupted by loss, and soon after, by circumstances that change the future she thought she had chosen. In conversation, Dara Levan is interested in how people keep living after loss, and how joy and grief can exist simultaneously without canceling each other out.
“What do we do with the time we have left?” Dara asks, a question that runs through the novel—through motherhood, marriage, loss, and love, asking us to remain present and to stay open to joy.
“What are we doing with these moments when it could just be our last? And I mean that in a really uplifting, present way.”
A GOODBYE AT SUNSET is where Dara perfectly encapsulates grief, memory, and the present moment. On the first page of Shaken to the Core, we’re on a Miami beach at sunset, Joy’s mother’s favorite time of day. Dara said the choice came partially from the “tapestry of shared experiences” drawn from her podcast, her work as a speech therapist, and her own life. “Salt is cleansing,” Dara explained, and healing comes in waves, “just like the waves of an ocean.” The scene is a goodbye, but Dara intended it to be uplifting, because for her, honoring the people we have lost also means honoring what they loved.
“I love sunsets. I find them soothing. I also think sunsets are metaphorical. It’s an ending.”
GRIEF HAS SEASONS, Dara says, and that is why she structures the book that way. She talked about the ways grief can make people act unlike themselves, whether it be making choices that seem irrational, or wondering why they haven’t cried yet. Winter is an inward season, and in the novel, winter gives Joy’s emotional state a visable reference point. Joy is “wintering, literally and figuratively,” but winter is not only darkness. Dara tells us that a dark, snowy day is still magical and uplifting, and we believe her.
“Everybody grieves differently at every phase, at every stage, at every season.”
TAKING TIME TO BE PRESENT is Dara’s way of thinking about the clock in her own life. She joked that she’s “perpetually late” and doesn’t wear a watch, but her relationship to time isn’t so much about punctuality. She wants to be fully present, fully there for a friend, a child’s accomplishment, or moments with her husband that feel sacred.
We see this perspective infused in the novel, and the lessons learned by Joy after her relationship to time changes after loss. Because the future is different than what she imagined, it becomes even more important for her to use the present as an opportunity to choose how to live. Dara’s answer to “What do we do with the time we have left?” is presence: choosing joy without pretending grief has disappeared.
“That’s what life’s about, it’s about living. And living, to me, is about being as present as we can.”
DARA LEVAN is an award-winning author, speaker, and the founder of Every Soul Has a Story, an inspiring podcast in which she interviews guests from around the globe. Shaken to the Core is her latest novel, published yesterday, on June 23rd!
At the heart of AUTHOR & CO. is a love of reading, and we’re bringing literature into everyday life in wonderfully unexpected ways.
Our collection includes Author Clock—the clock that tells time through quotes from literature, and now Author Forecast, which pairs real-time weather conditions with passages from books.
And now, Shaken to the Core will join Author Clock at 11:55 a.m., bringing Dara Levan’s words into an everyday minute her novel encourages us not to miss.
Learn more at authorandco.com
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