THE PLOT THICKENS KIWI AUTHOR'S HOLLYWOOD HOPES

The bestseller is hoping to catch the eye of Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth!

- WENDYL NISSEN

Taranaki-born author Jacqueline Bublitz became one of New Zealand’s most internationally successful debut novelists ever with the release of her book Before You Knew My Name earlier this year. The book is set in New York and is about the connection between a dead girl and the woman who finds her body. It was a number one bestseller here for many weeks and Jacqueline, 44, is now busy working on her next novel. She talked to the Weekly during lockdown.

Your first novel received rave reviews by such celebrated authors as Marian Keyes. How has that changed your life?

It’s outwardly changed everything but not what had come before. I came back to New Zealand from Melbourne when my Dad was sick and then he died, so I had already fundamentally changed my life. The next big shift was getting the offer from my publisher for the book on the night New Zealand went into the first level 4 lockdown, so nothing that has happened to me can be separated from the context of what was happening and continues to happen in the world.

What qualities do you think make a good writer of novels?