Even before arriving, she fell under its spell.
She stayed for five days.
She gave up coffee.
Credit: Adrian Price
I stopped at the first cafe on the way back and had a coffee, she admits.
One could easily imagine the experience fitting into a Moriarty novel.
Is there a bit of autobiography there for Moriarty?
Viking
When the book comes out… everyone will think its you, the author recounts.
ButNine Perfect Strangersisnt just slapstick.
(I love people who are always furious about something, Moriarty adds dryly.)
Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/HBO
But she assures this was merely a starting point: Madeline ended up nothing like this particular friend!
Then theres Masha,Nine Perfect Strangers tyrant of green-juice-glugging and wake-ups-at-dawn, who originated from a TripAdvisor review.
Moriarty scoured the travel website when she began writing and fell hard for one particular rant.
With pleasure, I realized that I needed a crazy person to runmyresort.
Yet Masha also defies the expectations set by that first impression.
Key toNine Perfect Strangersis that its mocking introductions are no less affectionate than the empathic shadings that follow.
Her characters linger beyond the final pages, like a new friend whos moved away.
The author mourns their absence too.
I get to know them.
At least herLiesensemble has lived on.
Now even more Moriarty characters are earning second lives.
I never want to think that the film adaptation is the end result, Moriarty explains.
For me, whats most important is the novel.
All this success for a writer whos often boxed into the dubious womens fiction genre.
Moriarty has issues with the womens fiction label Why are we a subcategory?
she asks but her opinion is evolving.
She wonders whether, perhaps, its time to reclaim the term.
We have a lot to be proud of.
