International bestselling author Liane Moriarty has sold 20 million copies of her books, with three turned into global television hits. Known for her privacy, the North Shore local chats to Editor in Chief Michelle Giglio about how surviving breast cancer put mortality in the spotlight for her 10th novel, Here One Moment.
Murder. Stalking. Affairs. Domestic violence. Addiction. Deception. Fraud. Fate. Chance. If you have read one of Liane Moriarty’s 10 novels – or seen a television adaptation – then you will be familiar with the themes of this bestselling author. Liane is the only Australian to have had three of her novels debut on the coveted New York Times bestseller lists, with Big Little Lies, Nine Perfect Strangers and Apples Never Fall turned into highly successful television series.
I caught up with Liane in Sydney as she was starting a one- month international book tour for Here One Moment, which after just one week on the shelves was the bestselling book in Australia. Fresh from early morning television and radio interviews, with author chats and book signings scheduled for later that week, I suggest it’s all somewhat tiring. “Exhausting, but in a wonderful way,” Liane says. “So I never get jaded about that. I haven’t done it enough to ever take that for granted.”
What Liane loves best is meeting her readers, she admits. “I enjoy hearing stories about what my books have meant to them. So whether it’s that a book helped to make a holiday even more pleasurable, or get through a difficult time. Because sometimes my books are a very easy read, so if they’re going through a hard time with a sick relative, then my books help distract them.
“Other times there are subjects that resonate with the readers. So whether it’s infertility or domestic violence, or just family dynamics. It feels like almost every person who comes up in the signing line has a lovely little story to tell.”
In 2017, Big Little Lies – which dissected the lives of dramatically entwined women on the fictional ‘Pirriwee Peninsula’ – was turned into a television series on HBO starring Nicole Kidman. All of a sudden, Liane Moriarty was no longer just a publishing phenomenon – but earning all the plaudits and exposure which come with television. The TV series, featuring Hollywood royalty Meryl Streep, Reece Witherspoon and Laura Dern, won eight Emmys – and Liane found herself walking the red carpet in Los Angeles, side by side with the best actors in the business. How did she keep it all together?
“I often wonder if it had happened when I was younger, would I have gotten caught up in it more,” she reflects. “But for me, I just enjoyed it. And I always describe it as a wonderful perk of the job to be able to go to some of these events and to have an insight into that world without really having to do too much.”
For most of Liane’s writing life is spent on the North Shore with her husband and teenage daughter and son, in her home office developing all the delicious characters we have come to love in her novels. Whether it is the impossibly beautiful Celeste of Big Little Lies who appears to have the perfect life – but is secretly regularly bashed by her husband. Or the seemingly serene Masha of Nine Perfect Strangers who runs a health resort – but harbours a damaging secret which threatens to tear her – and her clients – apart. Incidentally, both characters are played with zest by Nicole Kidman in their television adaptations.
At the Big Little Lies premiere in Hollywood with Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon
Just how does she get the ideas for her books? “Everywhere! It could be something I read. I can always remember (my third book) What Alice Forgot is about somebody who loses her memory. And I clearly remember reading a story about a woman in the UK who lost her memory.
“So a lot of times it’s reading a human interest story that will spark something. Or just something that somebody says, something that I eavesdrop on.”
Her latest tome Here One Moment is about a seemingly ordinary lady, Cherry Lockwood, who boards a plane and then declares how and when each passenger will die – right down to a baby who will die from drowning when seven. ‘Fate won’t be fought!’ Cherry declares.
Liane recalls when she got the idea. “I was in a plane and I was considering my own mortality, and then just looking about at all the passengers. And wondering to myself, ‘Will you be the person who gets to live till you are over 100? Or will you be the person whose life is unexpectedly cut short?’
“And then thinking one day that information will be available (and) somebody would be able to look up each of us and see how and when we died. And that strangely blew my mind. And that’s when I thought, ‘Well, what if it was known now?’”
Mortality had certainly been on her mind, Liane says, in the years before she wrote Here One Moment. “First of all, my sister got breast cancer, then I lost my dad. Then we had the pandemic. I think we all stared at death in the face for a while. And then I got breast cancer myself. We’re both fine now, but I think all those things combined meant that it was on my mind.”
The book has a huge collection of colourful characters, spearheaded by ‘death lady’ Cherry, who all react differently to their predicted demise. “It’s not really about death,” Liane declares. “Death sparks a premise. But really it’s about fate and destiny and how we deal with uncertainty, because we are all desperate for certainty. We can’t have it, but we have a natural desire for it.”
Liane wrote the role of Mary-Louise from HBO’s Big Little Lies season 2 especially for Meryl Streep
Liane did see a fortune teller when brewing her book, but states that while she was ‘ready to be a believer,’ the one she saw did not inspire her to pay heed to such predictions.
So what would Liane do if she knew her date of death? “I think I’d do exactly what my characters did!” she laughs. “When I came up with this premise, I was originally thinking that the characters would have these amazing revelations about how to live your life. And that they would just automatically accept the prediction. But then when I put my characters in that position, I realised the very first thing is you wouldn’t believe it. The second thing is you would try to fight it. (Like asking a doctor) for a second opinion. (If you are told that) you’re going to die in a workplace accident, then do you give up work?
“I think I would be the same unless I was given a wonderful prediction that I’ll die peacefully in my sleep when I’m 100. Because I think most of us secretly think, ‘I’m getting that lucky. I’m getting the best ending.’”
Liane is not an author who plans – she prefers to sit down and write what comes to her. “I never set out with any particular intentions. It’s more (whether) it will keep me interested (for) a year to write it. So if it doesn’t make me think, ‘Oh, that’ll be fun,’ then I’ll let it go.”
Research frustrates her, she admits. “I guess I just wish I knew everything!” she says. “I’m aware of my own shortcomings that no matter what I do, I can never truly know what it’s like to be in another person’s head. But that’s my desperate desire!”
As for her characters, who are so relatable in all their quirks and failings, Liane just wants people to enjoy reading. “I hope that it helps (readers) lose themself in the story. And that the characters therefore feel real to them. All I really want is to give them the pleasure of reading, because it’s one of life’s greatest pleasures and we’re all at the mercy of technology and the phone. Even though I love to read, I find it hard sometimes. I have to push the phone away. So when a new book brings me into a new world, then it’s wonderful.”
Liane’s husband is the ‘stay at home dad’ for their two children
“The biggest thrill for me is still being out in public and seeing somebody on the beach or on a plane reading my book. That has never gotten old.”
The Husband’s Secret (2013) was Liane’s first novel to make the coveted New York Times bestseller list
Her ability to write about the ordinary trappings of life, and turn it into something extra-ordinary, certainly caught the attention of Nicole Kidman. Kidman was executive producer of Nine Perfect Strangers, and they are in regular contact. “Nicole has become a lovely friend because (she) spends a lot of time in Australia and we’re a similar age. She’s been so supportive. I enjoy her company. She’s wonderful.”
Most of Liane’s books are set on the North Shore where Liane grew up, around Hornsby and Turramurra, with Liane revealing she gave Cherry a lot of her mother’s childhood in Hornsby – with mum chipping in with setting corrections here and there.
When I suggest that ‘Pirriwee Peninsula’ described in Big Little Lies sounds dangerously like the Pittwater, Liane laughs and says ‘They might just be somewhere on the Beaches.’ As an adult she lived for some years in Manly, and Balmoral’s Bathers Pavilion is a favourite place for her family to celebrate after each book is finished, with the beach holding special memories for her as somewhere she would take her children when they were little.
Having her teenagers around does make her writing a less lonely profession than it was before she was married, Liane reflects. “I do remember years ago before I had children, and when I was single, I was just at home and I’d have whole days where I wouldn’t see anybody and I remember thinking, ‘Oh, you’re going to need to get a normal job again,’ because that wasn’t enough for me.
“Once I was in a relationship, and especially once I had children, then I think it’s a perfect job as a mother to be able to write and then be there for the children.”
Her husband has taken on the role of ‘stay at home dad,’ with Liane saying it’s a relief he can look after the children when she is away on tour. Reflecting on a woman’s struggle to ‘be everything,’ she says it’s ‘literally impossible.’ “Hopefully you can have lots of things at different times, but to try and do everything at once is very hard. And so each of us has to find our own way. It really helps having a supportive partner.”
Filming has just wrapped on another adaptation of The Last Anniversary, which unlike the other three TV series, features an all-Australian cast and was filmed on the Hawkesbury, where it was set – which Liane says she is ‘thrilled’ about. Liane has had little involvement in the adaptations, just ‘handing over’ her books. “I didn’t offer to write the screenplays,” she says. “I visited the sets for a couple of days. I just had a lot of fun.”
How does she feel, seeing her words turned into film? “It’s just a surreal feeling, really. And I feel grateful because it brings me new readers who might not otherwise have known me. But I have to say that there are so many other people involved in that process. Whereas if I see somebody reading my book, that feels more personal, and that was just about my imagination and their imagination.
“So the biggest thrill for me is still being out in public and seeing somebody on the beach or on a plane reading my book. That has never gotten old.”
Liane is adamant she does not write with the screen in mind. “I would say that every time somebody says to me, ‘I hope they don’t change your book!’ I always say, ‘But nobody can change my book! The book is still there and your experience of the book – nobody can take that away from you.’
“And the adaptations are for a different medium. And I’m not writing the books to be a stepping point to an adaptation. For me, it’s just the books. The adaptations are another thing.”
Fans of Big Little Lies will be thrilled to hear Liane is writing her first sequel, set when the children are in high school – with Nicole Kidman already declaring she’d ‘love’ to make a third series. “I have to admit, I’d always talked about that. But there has been so much desire for (the actors) to all work together again, that it sometimes feels like Nicole has somehow manifested it! But it’s still not officially confirmed that there will be a season three.”
Normally Liane produces a book every three years, but reveals she may get the sequel out ‘a bit quicker if I can manage it.’
Meanwhile, after her book tour, she will recharge by getting back into exercise through walks with her labrador, and catching up on all the ‘life admin’ she has put aside while trying to finish Here One Moment.
“If I’ve been rushing to meet a deadline, that is your inward time. So then I enjoy getting out and seeing people again. Whereas once I’ve finished a tour, I’ve seen lots of people and I’m ready to go back inside and be back at my computer again.”
We just cannot wait to see what Liane conjures up next.