New Books Network Interview: Laura Kamoie

History and historical fiction exist in a kind of dance. The historian explores documents and uncovers previously hidden information; the historical novelist brings that information to life by immersing readers in emotional and sensory experience, much of which is not readily attainable in old documents because those living at the time took these things for granted—or, in the case of emotions, at times deliberately suppressed descriptions of them. When it works, the relationship between history and fiction brings the past vividly to life without distorting what we can reasonably know about long-ago experiences. My latest New Books Network interview with Laura Kamoie explores how she and her writing partner Stephanie Dray tried to make that happen in their latest collaboration, A Founding Mother: A Novel of Abigail Adams, released earlier this month by William Morrow. Read on to find out more.

As usual, the rest of this post is adapted from New Books in Historical Fiction.

So close to the semi-quincentennial, it’s great to see a novel focused on the life of Abigail Adams, a woman appreciated even in the late 1700s—not least by her husband of more than half a century, John Adams, the second president of the United States—but not, at the time, for her determination that her new country should also extend liberty to its female citizens.

Of course, Abigail Adams has received considerable attention since for her views on the need for adult women to control their own futures, but in the process much of the complexity of her life, her character, her surroundings, and her family has dropped out of the discussion. In A Founding Mother: A Novel of Abigail Adams, Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie dive into the story of Abigail’s and John’s long and loving marriage, their political service and economic problems, their time at home and abroad, and their six children—four of whom survived to adulthood but not all of whom thrived once they got there.

It’s all wonderfully nuanced and complex, both emotionally and in terms of the history revealed here—enriched by the feminine perspective. The American Revolution as it happened was not the neat story told in school but messy, sprawling, contentious, risky, and eventful, and the formation of the resulting republic reflected all those competing trends. Unless you’re a historian specializing in the period, I can guarantee you will find out things you never knew, and in entertaining ways.