Catherine Graham | Issue 15

Interview with an excerpt from The Most Cunning Heart

Catherine Graham | Photo by Marion Voysey

Kathryn Mockler: What was the inspiration for your new novel The Most Cunning Heart?

Catherine Graham: I was interested in exploring the aftereffects of grief. How does a young woman become who she needs to be when her family has been ripped away from her? What does it mean to find home? How does one deal with the legacy of grief and family secrets while experiencing a floating sense of self? What happens when the need to belong blinds you from abusive forces? These are just some of the questions that were running through my mind as I was writing the novel.

KM: Your novel is set in the 1990s in Northern Ireland. Could you discuss this time period and setting? 

CG: Newly alone in the world, Caitlin Maharg leaves all she knows to pursue her newfound love of poetry. In her grief-stricken state it makes sense that she’s pulled to a place of extremes. Northern Ireland during the 90s had a rich, thriving literary community even as the Troubles continued…