September 14, 2024 • 13 mins
Best-selling Aussie author Liane Moriarty is tackling more heavy subjects in her latest novel.
In her 20-year career she’s written nine adult fiction books - all international bestsellers with over 20 million copies sold.
Her books have also gone on to inspire several films and TV shows.
Her latest book, Here One Moment, examines death and mortality - and was inspired by an experience on a flight.
"It was at a time of my life where I was considering my own mortality, because in the preceding years a few things had happened. My sister got diagnosed with breast cancer, I lost my dad, we had the pandemic - I think all of us were thinking about death."
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News TALKSEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Leanne Moriarty is a global best selling author. In her
twenty year career, she's written nine adult fiction books, all
international best sellers, with over twenty million copies sold. But
not only has she sold lots of books, every single
one of her novels has been optioned for film or TV.
Leone's tenth book is out now Here. One Moment explores
(00:34):
the question if you knew when you were going to die,
what would you do differently? It's a fascinating premise for
a book, and Leanne Moriarty joins me from Australia. Good morning, Leanne,
good morning, so good to have you here. Really clever premise.
Where did the idea for this story come from?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Well it came to me when I was on a
flight out of Hobart on my way to Sydney, which
is exactly what happens in the book. And there was
a long delay where we were stuck on the tarmac,
which again I had exactly the same happened in the book.
But I was looking around at all my fellow passengers
(01:18):
and the cheerful thought came into my head that every
single passenger on this plane would one day die. And
I think it was at a time in my life
where I was considering my own mortality, because in the
preceding years a few things that happened. My sister got
(01:39):
diagnosed with breast cancer, I lost my dad, we had
the pandemic. So I think all of us were thinking
about death. And then I myself was diagnosed with breast cancer.
And so my sister and I are both fine now,
but yes, it was just at a time. And also
I'm in my mid fifties, so I think that you
(02:01):
just start to think about your mortality. So that thought
came into my head, and so I was looking at
each passenger, and I was thinking, will you be the
one who makes it to one hundred and dies peacefully
in your sleep, which is what I guess we all
secretly believe is going to happen. Will you be the
one whose life was unexpectedly cut short? And I was
(02:24):
thinking about the fact that one day in the future
that information would be available, as in somebody could look
back at the statistics or look at the record of
who was on that flight, and they'd be able to
see an age and cause of death for every passenger.
And that's when I thought, what if that information was
available right now and somebody stood up and pointed it
(02:47):
at each of us and told us what would happen?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Then I think we've all been stuck on a plane
at some point, sitting on a tar make And that
was what really striking me about it, And I was going, gosh,
imagine if this did happen, would I actually, you know,
like I was thinking, what would I do? Would I
just kind of put my fingers in my ears and
kind of, you know, go loudly or you know, because
I don't think i'd want to know the date of
(03:11):
my death. Do you would you want to know the
date of your death?
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Well? I think I think I would react the way
the passengers would because originally I was thinking, Okay, so
they'll all get these predictions and then they'll have revelations
about the way they live their life, but then their lives.
But then when I started to write the book and
(03:36):
really put myself in those passengers shoes, then the first
thing is you'd think, well, I don't believe it, you know,
what does she know? And I think that's what happens
even if you get a terminal diagnosis, your first response
is disbelief, and then the second thing is that you
try and you try and fight it. So, for example,
(03:59):
one of the passengers is told he's going to die
in a workplace accident. So I think if you're told that,
not going to think, you're going to try to avoid work,
then you're going to change jobs. You're going to do
whatever you can to change destiny. So yeah, so I
don't I don't know. I do know. I've read some
(04:21):
stories of people getting a terrible diagnosis and their family
members keeping it a secret from them, and I would
not want that. I'd want to know about my own
my own health. Sorry, I guess I always go back
and forth. Is thinking about this probably too literally? But yeah,
(04:43):
I guess in the end the answer is yes, I
would want to know if somebody really did could tell me.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Because I think you're so right that your initial reaction is,
what is going on here? This woman's a little bit crazy.
Obviously she can't predict when everybody on this plane is
going to die. But then the human mind is so interesting,
isn't it? And how can you not let that sort
of seep into your into your life and it would
be on your mind. So it's just wonderful the way
(05:10):
you explore this free will versus destiny. Where do you sit?
Speaker 3 (05:16):
I'm on the side of free will. It's really interesting
talking to people about this book and how many people
are on the side of destiny. And I always think
destiny is a lovely thing to think about when good
things happen to you. So it's nice to think it
was my destiny to meet my partner and all those
(05:37):
other bad relationships were just part of my journey to
get here, to get the happy ending, or for myself
to think it was my destiny to be an author.
But then I think of terrible things that happened to
people that terrible things that happened to children and young people,
(06:02):
and then it's impossible for me to then believe that
that was their destiny. That's when I think you want
to look at, well, how you know when things go wrong,
how could we have stopped that that was not their destiny?
And and the people involved had free will, or whether
(06:25):
it was somebody who made a terrible mistake, whether it
was somebody who chose to drink drive that day, I
believe they they had the free will to choose otherwise,
and it wasn't somebody's destiny to die at their hands.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Leone. You're not hesitant to cover darker, harder topics in
the books that you write, and obviously death is kind
of center the center of this one, and and and
how we live our lives and living. But you know,
did you find it, you know, sitting with that, sitting
was sort of writing about deferent things throughout this book?
Is that is that difficult?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Do you?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Do you enjoy it? Is it? Does it weigh on you?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Actually? I found it quite life affirming to be thinking
about death in that way, and it did give me
not obviously every minute of every day, but I think
while I was writing, it did make me stop and
think and have a moment's gratitude. And then I always
(07:24):
feel like I need to you know, this thing of
acknowledging your privilege, that there's a certain amount of privilege
in being able to stop and just be grateful to
be here and to be in good health and just
to be living a really ordinary day is amazing. So yeah,
(07:49):
it didn't weigh on me heavily. I was worried sometimes
sometimes I would tell people the premise of the book,
and i'd see almost an expression of resistance that people
don't want to think about death. But I think thinking
about the finite nature of your life can actually be
(08:10):
a wonderful a wonderful thing.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
And the character's journeys are so interesting, and you're never
quite too sure which way they're going to go to
what extent do you plan your books before you start writing.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
So I didn't know where they were going to go either,
So I'm not a planner in this book. I had
the premise of the book, and originally I was thinking,
I don't know if I would I really liked it
as an opening scene, but I was saying, I don't
know that. It's not like it would be the first
book where somebody had had made predictions. But then I
(08:47):
worked out who she was, which I will not say,
and so that's all I knew. I knew who she
was and why she had done this, but I didn't
know what predictions she'd hand out, and I didn't know
what everybody's responses to those predictions would be. So I
(09:08):
always I always feel like I need to make it
clear in case there any aspiring authors listening that that
I'm not a planner. But that doesn't mean that it
all just falls into place perfectly. I have to then
go back and fix things once I've worked out what's
going to happen, So then I go back and put
in the red herrings or obviously have to make certain changes.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
You've been so successful, is there any pressure or nerves
anymore when it comes to releasing a new bog?
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Oh? Yes, yes, every single time. It's yeah, that doesn't
that doesn't change. It's always it's always nerve racking, and
it's always the very best thing. If if somebody says
they love my book, that's that's the best feeling ever.
(10:01):
I'm the eldest child, so the eldest of six, so
I have a death need for approval and praise.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
It's so interesting. It's pretty much exactly what marian Key
said to me. She said, I'd never take a book
for granted. Every time I release a new one, it's
nerve wrecking, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah, yeah, thanks gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Now I'm wondering we can't get enough of your books
and the TV show adaptations. Do you now write with
an actor in mind? Does that even sort of sneak
into your thoughts?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
No? Absolutely, not so No, when I'm I'm writing, I'm
not thinking of the future adaptation. So I for me,
the book is the end goal, not a potential adaptation.
For me, that's something quite separate. And other people with
expertise in all their areas, whether it's the acting, the directing, whatever,
(10:58):
they then take it in something completely different. But the
book that's between me and the and so's I will
have a character in my imagination, but every single reader
has a slightly different interpretation.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
I've heard rumors of a third season of Big Little Lives.
Does this mean that you've got to write another book?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
So yeah, I definitely not officially confirmed a third season,
but I can confirm that I am writing a sequel
to my own book. So in the book that we
follow on from my novel, so set in Australia, and
(11:43):
it's the first one that I felt actually could work
as a sequel because Big Lives was about children starting school,
which is what my children were doing at the time.
And so now a decade or so later, I am
a mother of teens, so I've got all the children
they're now teenagers. So this is a way for me
(12:06):
to work through all the issues of parenting teens.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Leanne, I know that this is the start of a
very long book tour for you. How much do you
love the book tours?
Speaker 3 (12:17):
I did, well, I really love meeting the readers. And
I realized that actually it's a similar it's a similar
way of thinking that you have a new appreciation of
life if you've told you've only got so much left
of it. During the pandemic, when it seemed like maybe
(12:38):
I would never go on a book tour again, I thought,
oh no, actually I really I need the book tours,
even though they're exhausting, but meeting readers and just the
lovely things they say, whether it's whether it's just something
simple about their young mothers and the books their precious
(12:59):
time to themselves at the end of the day, or
if my book got them through because they're light, easy reads.
You know, this is a book about death, it's still
an easy read that got them through a difficult time
when somebody was sick. So all that sort of thing
is really precious to me.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Oh willya, And we appreciate your time today. Thank you
so much, and beast of luck with the book.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Oh, thank you so much, Francisco. It's my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudgin. Listen
live to news talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News TALKSEDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Leanne Moriarty is a global best selling author. In her
twenty year career, she's written nine adult fiction books, all
international best sellers, with over twenty million copies sold. But
not only has she sold lots of books, every single
one of her novels has been optioned for film or TV.
Leone's tenth book is out now Here. One Moment explores
(00:34):
the question if you knew when you were going to die,
what would you do differently? It's a fascinating premise for
a book, and Leanne Moriarty joins me from Australia. Good morning, Leanne,
good morning, so good to have you here. Really clever premise.
Where did the idea for this story come from?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
Well it came to me when I was on a
flight out of Hobart on my way to Sydney, which
is exactly what happens in the book. And there was
a long delay where we were stuck on the tarmac,
which again I had exactly the same happened in the book.
But I was looking around at all my fellow passengers
(01:18):
and the cheerful thought came into my head that every
single passenger on this plane would one day die. And
I think it was at a time in my life
where I was considering my own mortality, because in the
preceding years a few things that happened. My sister got
(01:39):
diagnosed with breast cancer, I lost my dad, we had
the pandemic. So I think all of us were thinking
about death. And then I myself was diagnosed with breast cancer.
And so my sister and I are both fine now,
but yes, it was just at a time. And also
I'm in my mid fifties, so I think that you
(02:01):
just start to think about your mortality. So that thought
came into my head, and so I was looking at
each passenger, and I was thinking, will you be the
one who makes it to one hundred and dies peacefully
in your sleep, which is what I guess we all
secretly believe is going to happen. Will you be the
one whose life was unexpectedly cut short? And I was
(02:24):
thinking about the fact that one day in the future
that information would be available, as in somebody could look
back at the statistics or look at the record of
who was on that flight, and they'd be able to
see an age and cause of death for every passenger.
And that's when I thought, what if that information was
available right now and somebody stood up and pointed it
(02:47):
at each of us and told us what would happen?
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Then I think we've all been stuck on a plane
at some point, sitting on a tar make And that
was what really striking me about it, And I was going, gosh,
imagine if this did happen, would I actually, you know,
like I was thinking, what would I do? Would I
just kind of put my fingers in my ears and
kind of, you know, go loudly or you know, because
I don't think i'd want to know the date of
(03:11):
my death. Do you would you want to know the
date of your death?
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Well? I think I think I would react the way
the passengers would because originally I was thinking, Okay, so
they'll all get these predictions and then they'll have revelations
about the way they live their life, but then their lives.
But then when I started to write the book and
(03:36):
really put myself in those passengers shoes, then the first
thing is you'd think, well, I don't believe it, you know,
what does she know? And I think that's what happens
even if you get a terminal diagnosis, your first response
is disbelief, and then the second thing is that you
try and you try and fight it. So, for example,
(03:59):
one of the passengers is told he's going to die
in a workplace accident. So I think if you're told that,
not going to think, you're going to try to avoid work,
then you're going to change jobs. You're going to do
whatever you can to change destiny. So yeah, so I
don't I don't know. I do know. I've read some
(04:21):
stories of people getting a terrible diagnosis and their family
members keeping it a secret from them, and I would
not want that. I'd want to know about my own
my own health. Sorry, I guess I always go back
and forth. Is thinking about this probably too literally? But yeah,
(04:43):
I guess in the end the answer is yes, I
would want to know if somebody really did could tell me.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Because I think you're so right that your initial reaction is,
what is going on here? This woman's a little bit crazy.
Obviously she can't predict when everybody on this plane is
going to die. But then the human mind is so interesting,
isn't it? And how can you not let that sort
of seep into your into your life and it would
be on your mind. So it's just wonderful the way
(05:10):
you explore this free will versus destiny. Where do you sit?
Speaker 3 (05:16):
I'm on the side of free will. It's really interesting
talking to people about this book and how many people
are on the side of destiny. And I always think
destiny is a lovely thing to think about when good
things happen to you. So it's nice to think it
was my destiny to meet my partner and all those
(05:37):
other bad relationships were just part of my journey to
get here, to get the happy ending, or for myself
to think it was my destiny to be an author.
But then I think of terrible things that happened to
people that terrible things that happened to children and young people,
(06:02):
and then it's impossible for me to then believe that
that was their destiny. That's when I think you want
to look at, well, how you know when things go wrong,
how could we have stopped that that was not their destiny?
And and the people involved had free will, or whether
(06:25):
it was somebody who made a terrible mistake, whether it
was somebody who chose to drink drive that day, I
believe they they had the free will to choose otherwise,
and it wasn't somebody's destiny to die at their hands.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Leone. You're not hesitant to cover darker, harder topics in
the books that you write, and obviously death is kind
of center the center of this one, and and and
how we live our lives and living. But you know,
did you find it, you know, sitting with that, sitting
was sort of writing about deferent things throughout this book?
Is that is that difficult?
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Do you?
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Do you enjoy it? Is it? Does it weigh on you?
Speaker 3 (07:03):
Actually? I found it quite life affirming to be thinking
about death in that way, and it did give me
not obviously every minute of every day, but I think
while I was writing, it did make me stop and
think and have a moment's gratitude. And then I always
(07:24):
feel like I need to you know, this thing of
acknowledging your privilege, that there's a certain amount of privilege
in being able to stop and just be grateful to
be here and to be in good health and just
to be living a really ordinary day is amazing. So yeah,
(07:49):
it didn't weigh on me heavily. I was worried sometimes
sometimes I would tell people the premise of the book,
and i'd see almost an expression of resistance that people
don't want to think about death. But I think thinking
about the finite nature of your life can actually be
(08:10):
a wonderful a wonderful thing.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
And the character's journeys are so interesting, and you're never
quite too sure which way they're going to go to
what extent do you plan your books before you start writing.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
So I didn't know where they were going to go either,
So I'm not a planner in this book. I had
the premise of the book, and originally I was thinking,
I don't know if I would I really liked it
as an opening scene, but I was saying, I don't
know that. It's not like it would be the first
book where somebody had had made predictions. But then I
(08:47):
worked out who she was, which I will not say,
and so that's all I knew. I knew who she
was and why she had done this, but I didn't
know what predictions she'd hand out, and I didn't know
what everybody's responses to those predictions would be. So I
(09:08):
always I always feel like I need to make it
clear in case there any aspiring authors listening that that
I'm not a planner. But that doesn't mean that it
all just falls into place perfectly. I have to then
go back and fix things once I've worked out what's
going to happen, So then I go back and put
in the red herrings or obviously have to make certain changes.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
You've been so successful, is there any pressure or nerves
anymore when it comes to releasing a new bog?
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Oh? Yes, yes, every single time. It's yeah, that doesn't
that doesn't change. It's always it's always nerve racking, and
it's always the very best thing. If if somebody says
they love my book, that's that's the best feeling ever.
(10:01):
I'm the eldest child, so the eldest of six, so
I have a death need for approval and praise.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
It's so interesting. It's pretty much exactly what marian Key
said to me. She said, I'd never take a book
for granted. Every time I release a new one, it's
nerve wrecking, you know.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah, yeah, thanks gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Now I'm wondering we can't get enough of your books
and the TV show adaptations. Do you now write with
an actor in mind? Does that even sort of sneak
into your thoughts?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
No? Absolutely, not so No, when I'm I'm writing, I'm
not thinking of the future adaptation. So I for me,
the book is the end goal, not a potential adaptation.
For me, that's something quite separate. And other people with
expertise in all their areas, whether it's the acting, the directing, whatever,
(10:58):
they then take it in something completely different. But the
book that's between me and the and so's I will
have a character in my imagination, but every single reader
has a slightly different interpretation.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
I've heard rumors of a third season of Big Little Lives.
Does this mean that you've got to write another book?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
So yeah, I definitely not officially confirmed a third season,
but I can confirm that I am writing a sequel
to my own book. So in the book that we
follow on from my novel, so set in Australia, and
(11:43):
it's the first one that I felt actually could work
as a sequel because Big Lives was about children starting school,
which is what my children were doing at the time.
And so now a decade or so later, I am
a mother of teens, so I've got all the children
they're now teenagers. So this is a way for me
(12:06):
to work through all the issues of parenting teens.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Leanne, I know that this is the start of a
very long book tour for you. How much do you
love the book tours?
Speaker 3 (12:17):
I did, well, I really love meeting the readers. And
I realized that actually it's a similar it's a similar
way of thinking that you have a new appreciation of
life if you've told you've only got so much left
of it. During the pandemic, when it seemed like maybe
(12:38):
I would never go on a book tour again, I thought,
oh no, actually I really I need the book tours,
even though they're exhausting, but meeting readers and just the
lovely things they say, whether it's whether it's just something
simple about their young mothers and the books their precious
(12:59):
time to themselves at the end of the day, or
if my book got them through because they're light, easy reads.
You know, this is a book about death, it's still
an easy read that got them through a difficult time
when somebody was sick. So all that sort of thing
is really precious to me.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Oh willya, And we appreciate your time today. Thank you
so much, and beast of luck with the book.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Oh, thank you so much, Francisco. It's my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudgin. Listen
live to news talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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