Veronica Roth’s bestselling “Divergent” series is set in a dystopian future Chicago, drawing on her familiarity with the city from growing up in Barrington and attending Northwestern University. But for her new science fiction novel, “Carve the Mark,” Roth left home behind to create an entirely new galaxy.
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“It was kind of both easier and harder in ways that I guess I wasn’t expecting,” said Roth, 2006 Barrington High School graduate. “The easier part is if you don’t have to use our world as a backdrop the way you do with dystopian fiction, it’s complete and total freedom. On the other hand it’s complete and total freedom so you have to make all the decisions. You have to choose all the units of measurements and are they going to be a patriarchy and why would they? I have so many crazy person notes.”
Roth will discuss her work with Sarah Enni of the podcast “First Draft” and answer audience questions at Central School in Glencoe on Jan. 18, the day after “Carve the Mark” is released. The book is the first in a planned duology following two young people — Akos and Cyra — who are born to warring factions but form a close bond when Akos is kidnapped to serve Cyra’s tyrannical older brother. Roth said designing and presenting the book’s many names for people, technology, places and powers was a challenge.
“I think that the biggest focus of my revision was making sure there’s not too much information at once and making sure to put things into context that the reader can understand and remember,” Roth said. “I kind of get lost in my own mythology, so I really need help to streamline things. Not everything you think about has to be in the book. Some things can just be in your mind.”
One of her guiding principles was to understand the values of each of the book’s cultures.
“I tried to build the galaxy around different priorities,” she said. “That was really interesting to me — how our priorities affect our development of technology and how we treat other people.”
Roth began contemplating that concept when she spent time in Romania with her husband, who was studying art and visiting his family. She noticed that since the people there had limited resources they would add water heaters to old buildings rather than tearing them down and replacing them, and would use decorative bars instead of high tech security systems.
“Their priorities are different from mine as an American,” she said. “It was a great chance for me to see the way people approach the world in different ways.”
Roth said she spent 10 years wanting to write a story about someone being kidnapped and the challenges they face both in captivity and reintegrating after. She just couldn’t settle on how to tell the story, originally imagining it as a fantasy work before she settled on science fiction.
“I’ve always gravitated more towards science fiction so it felt natural to introduce space travel and being able to go to all these different places,” she said. “It made the universe huge and expansive and like it could go on forever. It wasn’t this deliberate career move so much as how the story fit in my mind.”
Writing the “Divergent” series taught Roth that her “capacity for predicting how our modern world is going to change over time is limited,” so she knew she didn’t want to continue writing dystopian works. She’s also uncertain how that genre will fare in the current political climate.
“I wonder if we’re going to be gravitating to more escapist stories with things becoming so dark,” she said. “The great thing about dystopian stories is that they engage us to fight against injustice. But sometimes that’s too hard. I want princesses and magic and to give my brain a break.”
Roth is currently working on the sequel to “Carve the Mark,” which will follow the same two characters but deal with larger conflicts in the book’s world. She could pen more stories in that universe depending on how the duology is received.
“When people are excited about a thing it makes you excited as a writer,” she said. “I’m kind of in a wait and see place. I worked hard on the part I could control. You have to see if it connects with people. I’m just wishing it will.”
An Evening with Veronica Roth
When: 7-9 p.m. Jan. 18
Where: Central School, 620 Greenwood Ave., Glencoe
Admission: Free. Preorder the book from The Book Stall to get a signed copy.
Information: 847-446-8880; www.thebookstall.com
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