The Bay of Foxes: A Novel

by Sheila Kohler

  You’ve said that M. is loosely based upon Marguerite Duras. Was there a specific incident in her life that inspired The Bay of Foxes?

  Not really one specific event, though I did remember that her partner, at some point in her life, was an Asian and that, of course, she spent her childhood in Vietnam. I transposed this to Africa, which is where I was born.

  When Dawit first meets M., he is already an admirer of “her spare, concentrated prose, her brief, evocative novels” (p. 10). While this description certainly applies to the work of Marguerite Duras, it could also be said of your own. And while the main biographical details are Duras’s, certain elements—the African upbringing and the position at a prestigious American university—are more evocative of your life than hers. Was there any point in particular in plotting or writing this novel where you found yourself merging with Duras?

  I suppose all characters lie in a “middle distance” somewhere between the author and the character created on the page. I was not aware at any point of writing about my own life, but of course there are always elements of that in everything we invent.

  Have you spent much time in Ethiopia? How did you come to choose that country as Dawit’s homeland?

  No, I have never been to Ethiopia. I think I chose it because of its history, its strong fight for independence, and its avoidance to a large extent of a long history of colonialism. I admire many of the young Ethiopian writers today who have brought the country to life for me, as well as the historians who have recorded the reign of Haile Selassie.

  Midway through The Bay of Foxes, Enrico visits Dawit at M.’s villa, bringing “an Italian translation of a book by Patricia Highsmith” (p. 114). Did you always intend for Dawit’s path to echo that of Highsmith’s infamous character, Ripley?

  No, not at the start, though I’m an admirer of her work, but once I realized there were echoes I wanted to acknowledge that. The problem of identity has always been one that has interested me. I remember as a teenager thinking, “Who shall I be? Melanie or Scarlett O’Hara!”

  When Dawit first moves in with M., he thinks, “Writers are like vultures, picking over the tragedies of other lives” (p. 13). Does this idea resonate with you in your own work?

  Yes, I’m afraid so. We use our tragedies and sometimes the sufferings of others on the page. I hope, though, that we act as well as witnesses, reminding people of what has come before so that it will not be repeated.

  Dawit tells M. that Haile Selassie was smothered with one of the same pillows used to elevate his feet from the ground. Is this true?

  I don’t think it is known exactly how Haile Selassie died, but the detail about the pillow for his feet is documented.

  Although Dawit’s character is sometimes in question, the novel’s sympathies appear to lie with him. Is his “overthrow” of M., his oppressor, meant to mirror—and perhaps justify—the rebellion that dethroned Haile Selassie and killed Dawit’s own parents?

  I didn’t think of it in those terms, but perhaps you are right. Certainly my sympathies were with him and with immigrants in similar situations who face such loneliness and loss in trying to establish new lives, though the older writer is also part of my story as you suggested.

  You’ve lived in the United States since 1981. In what ways has living here affected your work?

  America has been a place of possibilities for me. I’m very grateful for all the avenues that have opened up to me here in the publishing world as well as in academia. I have been very fortunate in the people I have met and those who have guided and helped me so generously.

  What are you working on now?

  A book on Freud and the Dora case. The title is Dora’s Freud.

  QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

  1. Dawit arrives at M.’s apartment with “a copy of Baudelaire’s Fleurs du mal; Marguerite Duras’s short stories, Whole Days in the Trees; and Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment” (p. 31). Why does Kohler include this detail?

  2. Dawit condemns M. as a racist and “[l]ike all colonizers … ultimately the dupe” (p. 54). How do the events of the novel support or disprove his feelings?

  3. Why didn’t Michelino and Adrianna tell the police about M.’s sudden “departure”?

  4. “These French intellectuals, for all their fancy talk, think about nothing but money in the end” (p. 186). Is Gustave more interested in profiting from M.’s final book or in her safe return? Does he suspect the truth?

  5. Should Dawit pay for his crime or has he already?

  6. The Bay of Foxes reverses the traditional alignment of gender and power, putting Dawit at the mercy of M., a powerful female. How—if at all—did this affect your reading of the novel?

  7. What does the unexpected appearance of Maria’s fatherless half-African baby add to the story?

  8. How closely do you think Kohler’s The Bay of Foxes resembles the book of the same name that Dawit wrote? Would you trust Simone to deliver the manuscript to Gustave?

  9. Have you read Marguerite Duras? If so, how would you compare her writing to Sheila Kohler’s? How does being an expatriate inform each writer’s work?

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