Atlantia (Dutton), the new YA novel by Ally Condie, author of the Matched trilogy, is due out October 28 (and reviewed below). Delving into the ocean's depths, the author draws readers into a mysterious underwater city with a tale of intrigue and sisterhood.
Your latest book is an original take on a sort of Atlantis mythology, which hasn't been covered a lot in current literature. What drew you to that particular myth? Where did the idea for this story start?
It actually wasn't so much the Atlantis myth--it was The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen. It's so dark and interesting. I thought this would be a great dystopia if you set it in the future, which is funny because Atlantia has no mermaids. The thing I really struggled with in the story was the caste system--the mermaids who don't have souls and the humans who do--and the societal difference between these people who live above and have souls but don't live as long, and the people below who live longer but don't have souls.
The sisterly relationship between Rio and Bey is central to Atlantia. Was that something you envisioned right away or did it develop as you wrote?
That was probably actually the first thing, even before the sirens or Rio or anything. I knew it was a book about sisters, and I knew Rio had been left by her sister. It's not about going up to find a boy. The Little Mermaid always wanted to go above, but the thing that finally drove her up there was the prince. In this case, Rio's always wanted to go above, but the thing that finally pushes her is her sister.
What made you decide to also incorporate the siren mythology?
The sirens I came to for a couple of reasons. The first was Rio, because I knew there was something special about her and it had to do with her voice. And then, also, so much is happening right now with women and girls and it's a great time, but there's also a lot of people who want to silence young women in a lot of cultures, so I knew pretty early on it was important that there were people who wanted to silence Rio. You always think "I'm writing this for me," but there's so many things that are happening out there--like Malala, and the girls who were taken in the #bringbackourgirls movement--and I wanted to give voice to that, too.
Atlantia has a great deal of world-building to it. Readers get a glimpse of Atlantia's founding, history, religion, traditions. How long did it take you to create that world?
It was like this with Matched, also. I get the characters first and then build the story around them. I did a lot of research on living underwater--underwater welding, pressure, deep sea diving--and then thought about what it would be like. There was a lot of research that didn't go into the book. I did it after I had the characters though. I wanted it to be mostly a story about sisters and relationships.
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Your bestselling Matched trilogy is also set in a dystopian future, an extremely popular genre right now. What do you think it is that makes the genre so successful? Were you surprised by the immediate success of Matched?
I was surprised because the market was kind of glutted at the time. Of course, you're writing two years before that, so you don't know it's going to be glutted. I was really pleased with how well it did. I think there's room for a lot of dystopia though. There was a lot of great stuff coming out right then. I think people are also just naturally drawn to dystopia. It's recognizable, but it's exotic. We can see our world in it. It's not pure sci-fi or pure fantasy, which I love, but it is familiar.
Can you offer any hints at what you're working on next?
I'm working on a YA sort of fantasy, sort of alternate universe. The plot actually kind of came to me even before Matched. There's a legal system, a murder trial. I was having some problems and finally I came up with this different setting, which fixed a lot of things. So it's got a murder set in this fantasy universe. --Kyla Paterno, trade book buyer and blogger, Garfield Book Company at PLU