I understood a little of how to accomplish that - looking for unexplored white space, changing proportion and emphasis, dropping, adding, or merging characters, playing with sequencing, and so on. I began writing Edgar Sawtelle with Hamlet in the foreground of my imagination, but also knowing that it was my job to subvert any simple equation between the two. Likewise, drawing on some older story is very common - unavoidable, probably.

I've seen the very same dynamic in the making of software.

Maybe that sounds like esoteric art-talk, but it isn't. What finally emerges is most influenced not by any external work, but by that very thing, when it is half-made. That's the nature of craft, in any realm. But, soon enough, it becomes its own thing, and your original ideas take a back seat to what surfaces in the writing. You get an idea, it gets you in front of the keyboard clicking away. You don't know what you are getting into, or how large or small it will turn out to be. How did it come to be? And what drew you to take on the themes of a modern Hamlet?ĭavid Wroblewski: I can't imagine any first novel not being daunting for the writer. He outlines his experience growing up on a farm in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, his lifelong love and study of dogs, as well as his ongoing fascination with the Bard.īTW: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, an expansive, intricate coming-of-age novel, seems like it might be a daunting prospect for a debut.

Wroblewski, a computer software engineer who's been working on the novel since the mid 1990s and while obtaining his MFA at the Warren Wilson Program for Writers, took some time out of his West Coast tour schedule to talk with BTW about the process of writing The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Driven by powerful characters, particularly the mute Edgar and the amazing dog Almondine, this story of a family's destruction will resonate with readers long after completion.' 'This story of a modern-day Hamlet, set in the northern woods of Wisconsin, reaches depths of emotion rare in any novel, much less a debut. The wide-ranging novel about a mute boy and his dogs on a Wisconsin farm, having garnered early, widespread, and enthusiastic support from indie booksellers, debuted this month as the top selection of the inaugural Indie Next List.īookseller Bill Cusumano of Nicola's Books in Ann Arbor, Michigan, had this to say about Edgar Sawtelle. David Wroblewski's first novel, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (Ecco), won independent booksellers' high praise right out of the March White Box.

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