Lauren's Question:
Q: Which character did you like to write - Greta, Lili, or Einar? Which was the most difficult or which one surprised you the most?
A: I love these characters for different reasons. Lili, for her courage, determination, and sense of wonder and belief in the future. Metaphorically, Lili’s story is one of rebirth. So this was an interesting writing challenge. The challenge with Greta was to write her in a complex way — to show her remarkable love for Lili, her seemingly bottomless support, while also showing her complicated responses to what was happening to her spouse and to her marriage. Greta is both selfless and selfish, and I needed to show that in a nuanced, empathetic way.
Barbara's Question:
Q: Did you know what happened to Gerda after separating from Lili? Did Gerda move to the U.S.? Did she actually become a Baroness?
A: She ended up marrying an officer from the Italian Air Force, someone who had many of the qualities that Hans has. She never stopped drawing/painting Lili and a few years after Lili’s death she tried to buy back one of her favorite Lili paintings that she sold in 1928. She died in 1940, mostly forgotten, just as Lili was mostly forgotten until somewhat recently.
Shirley's Question:
Q: My main question is why dedicate so much of the book to Greta? I would have liked more of what was going on in Einar and Lili's mind.
Why did he change Gerda to Greta? Why change her from Danish to a brash rich American woman? Am very interested!
A: As much as this is a story about identity it’s also a story about love and marriage. Lili’s life would have been different if she had had to transition on her own. For me, I decided the way to tell this story was as a love story. I also find Greta’s journey as complex and uncharted as Lili’s. Both women had to navigate their lives, and their paths forward, without any kind of role models or examples to look to. Both were pioneers.
Joanne's question:
Q: If you could invite anyone, dead or alive for dinner, who would it be?
A: Right now, my answer has to be Lili Elbe.I’m going to Dresden in April to participate in a ceremony to lay a new headstone at her grave (her original headstone is missing — probably destroyed in World War II). Lili is very much on my mind and I would like to spend time with her and toast her and thank her for being so brave.