AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
She isn't a ghost. She's a conwoman. That's a key line from a new novel with a mind-bending premise. Twin sisters, Clara and Dempsey, grew up apart, raised in separate London families after their mother's mysterious death years ago. Then on their 30th birthday, Clara swears she sees their mom on a city bus. Here's the thing - or the catch - the mom is the same age as her girls are - 30 years old. "The Catch" is a novel by Yrsa Daley-Ward. She's a poet and an award-winning writer. Welcome to the program.
YRSA DALEY-WARD: Hi, thank you for having me.
RASCOE: Could you read from that moment when Clara thinks she sees her mom?
DALEY-WARD: Yeah, sure.
(Reading) She is my mother, and she is on the bus. My mother rides the bus. The No. 6 bus. Let me help you understand because I need to be understood. Though I might never have known my mother, I know my mother when I see my mother. She died in 1995, they told us. Or she was missing, presumed dead, in '95, and then they found her remains, or what they said were likely her bodily remains. What they said likely were her remains - what can't have been her remains - all washed up on the banks of the River Thames, swollen as two people, slick with green moss. There was no foul play. None at all, they said.
RASCOE: So why is Clara so sure that this woman, who seems to be the same age as her, is her mom?
DALEY-WARD: Well, have you ever really wanted anything to be true, just really wanted or maybe just needed something to be true?
RASCOE: Yeah, or you see a person and you think they're the one (laughter).
DALEY-WARD: Right. Well, there's so much in life that is just intuition, isn't there?
RASCOE: Yes, yeah.
DALEY-WARD: You just think, my gut knows this, even though it doesn't appear to make sense.
RASCOE: But Dempsey is suspicious from the start. Dempsey's, like, no, this lady, it's not what you're thinking, Clara.
DALEY-WARD: Absolutely. If somebody said that somebody that went missing - presumed dead - 30 years ago, was back, and they were the same age - aged not a day - I would be suspicious, as well. So I can understand sort of the reasoning for both sisters and why they think or say what they think and say.
RASCOE: You know, talk to us about who these twins are when we first meet them. Like, 'cause Clara's a writer. She's broken out with this first novel, and she's kind of, like, trying to project this perfect life. Clara's kind of a mess, and Dempsey's kind of a mess, but she's not succeeding the way Clara is. They're both kind of messes, though.
DALEY-WARD: Right. Yeah, and I wanted to play with that. Like, what we perceive is a mess. And some people, it's all happening inside, but on the outside, they look great. And that's what the novel is really about. These twins - set of twins - who were all but estranged and grew up quite separately. And it seemed that Clara had a lot of the advantages and was seen as the successful, beautiful twin, and that Dempsey kind of got the raw end of the deal. And inside of the book, it really looks at that and looks at what that means and how much of that is true and how much of that is perception.
RASCOE: Is it - you know, 'cause you write in the acknowledgments of the book, to my readers who have lost one parent or the other, they remain inside and around us. They keep coming back. Was that the starting point of this book for you?
DALEY-WARD: Yeah, absolutely. My mother passed away a while ago. She passed away in my early 20s, and it was a profound loss. It was a profound loss, but also gave me so much insight, and it softened me a lot. You know, when you've undergone a loss, and I think everybody who has, knows that it gives you access to a kind of empathy that wasn't there before, because it's just such a deep grief. And to this day, I'll be walking down the street and see people, see somebody that maybe the stature, maybe something about her reminds her of my mother or what I remember of my mother. And that longing is still there. That yearning is still there. And it's - yes, it's grief, but it's also beautiful. It is love, you know? And so I thought, God, what would it be like if I was to suddenly encounter her again in some way? You know, what wish fulfillment, right? And what better wish fulfillment can you have than writing a book? So I invented it. What would it be like? And what if she was my age? Would I like her? Would we get on? Would we be friends? So that's what brought the book to life, that inquiry and that kind of wanting.
RASCOE: The mother character who we come across, she's kind of threatening. She's kind of just...
DALEY-WARD: Yeah.
RASCOE: She seems - there's something that it's, like, I don't know about this lady, OK? You're not necessarily...
DALEY-WARD: Yes (laughter).
RASCOE: ...Happy for the twins when she shows up, right? Like, it almost seems like the fairy tale is, like, this is not a good lady who's coming up here, right?
DALEY-WARD: Yeah. But this is the thing, like, you don't choose your parents...
RASCOE: No, no.
DALEY-WARD: ...Do you? So we got to be realistic about this. You - it can be anyone. And as I said before, families aren't perfect. And this is - it's like, you know, this - if it is their mother, this is who they've got.
RASCOE: We should say this - your novel is the first to be published under the new imprint for Well-Read Black Girl. Glory Edim started that Instagram book club. It really took off. Like, what does it mean for you to be a part of that?
DALEY-WARD: I think that what Glory has done and has created is so fantastic. And I'm honored to be - this is the inaugural book. So it's - it feels wonderful, well-timed, well-placed, everything. There's just something so special, and I'm honored to be in this space right now.
RASCOE: The title of your book - there are a couple of potential meanings, and I kind of played with that a little bit. But I like this idea. Like, how do you see it, like, "The Catch"?
DALEY-WARD: Well, I mean, there are lots of catches, just as there are in life. It's, like, you can have this, but there's this part. Or, you can have this, but guess what? There's this. So I wanted to play with that a little bit because, you know, everything is like a multitude of things.
RASCOE: That's Yrsa Daley-Ward. Her new novel is "The Catch." Thank you so much for joining us.
DALEY-WARD: Thank you for having me.
(SOUNDBITE OF STEVE RAEGELE, ET AL.'S "GIRL, YOU'RE LIVING A LIFE OF CRIME") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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