Author Interview with Carmen Radtke — Walking in the Shadow

 

Today, I am delighted to welcome Carmen Radtke back to Yarde Book Promotions to talk about her historical novel, Walking in the Shadow.

Set in New Zealand in 1909, the novel takes readers to Quail Island, where a small group of men suffering from leprosy have been isolated from the outside world. Among them is Jimmy Kokupe, a young man who has been cured of the disease but discovers that freedom is not quite as simple as leaving the island behind. With the prejudices of society and his own painful memories weighing heavily upon him, Jimmy must decide where he belongs and whether he can ever truly leave his past behind.

Carmen joins me today to talk about the remarkable true history of the Quail Island leprosy colony, the research that went into recreating the lives of its inhabitants, and the questions of identity, acceptance and belonging that lie at the heart of Jimmy's story.

But first, let's check out Walking in the Shadow

Publication Date: 9th May 2020

Publisher: Between the Pages Publishing

Print Length: 288 Pages

Genre: Historical Fiction

Jimmy Kokupe is the miracle man.

1909, Quail Island. On a small, wind-blasted island off the east coast of New Zealand a small colony of leprosy patients is isolated but not abandoned, left to live out their days in relative peace thanks to the charity of the townspeople and the compassion of the local doctor and matron of the hospital.

Jimmy Kokupe is a miracle: he’s been cured. But he still carries the stigma, which makes life back on the mainland dangerous and lonely. To find a refuge, he’s returned to the camp to

care for his friend, fellow patient old Will, and disturbed young Charley. Healed of his physical ailments and dreaming of the girl he once planned to follow to a new life in Australia, Jimmy meets ‘the lady’, the island caretaker’s beautiful but troubled wife who brings their food. Can she help Jimmy forget his difficult past and overcome his own prejudices towards his mixed parentage, and find the courage to risk living in freedom?

Walking in the Shadow takes readers to the leprosy colony on Quail Island in 1909. What first drew you to the history of the island and the people who were isolated there?

I discovered the story by accident, when I took my child to Quail Island for a day trip. I had no idea about the history until we had a picnic where a century ago, the leprosy patients had lived in their cabins (there was a simple sign). That thought didn’t let go of me.

Jimmy Kokupe has experienced something that should be extraordinary—he has been cured—yet returning to the mainland doesn't bring the freedom he might have expected. What interested you about exploring the difference between being medically cured and being accepted by society?

I’m not sure how much has actually changed since then. I remember the stigma around HIV. But especially with leprosy, a disease that existed in biblical times and still does to this day, the question was for so long, why did it happen to these very few people? Had they done anything to deserve this? And a disease that couldn’t be fully explained must have created so much fear.

Rather than embracing his chance to leave, Jimmy returns to the colony to care for Will and Charley. What does that decision tell us about Jimmy and where he feels he truly belongs?

I think the worst part of the disease is the shame and self-loathing that he feels. Cured or not, he’ll always be a leper. And the only people that understand and even look up to him, are on the island. Will has been the closest he’s come to a real family since his childhood. Isn’t that what we’re all searching for, someone who loves and accepts us just the way we are? 

The patients on Quail Island are isolated from the wider community, yet they haven't been entirely forgotten, with local people and medical staff continuing to care for them. How closely does this aspect of the novel reflect the real history of the Quail Island colony?

Very close. The men of Quail Island were lucky enough to have a dedicated doctor and regular visitors. The fence, the boats, the gifts, all this was real. I spent months researching.

Jimmy carries emotional wounds alongside the legacy of his illness, including difficult feelings surrounding his mixed parentage. How important was his struggle with his own identity when you were developing his character?

It was a big part of the story. Why would a man who’s experienced a miraculous cure give up his freedom again? His loneliness and struggle with his self-esteem started earlier. The New Zealand he grew up in (and Will before him) wasn’t exactly colour-blind. Today Māori is recognised as official language next to English, but for a long time children were punished for speaking their native tongue (which is beautiful, by the way, and has been preserved together with the tribal history orally for many centuries). Jimmy, who was orphaned young, grew up in the knowledge that his white mother was paying a heavy price for marrying a Māori and for having him.

The island itself seems ideally suited to a story about people caught between belonging and exclusion—physically close to the mainland but separated from it. How important was the landscape and geography of Quail Island in creating the atmosphere of the novel?

Very. I don’t think the book would exist otherwise. Just standing on the island and knowing that the men could easily have taken one of the boats and rowed across to the mainland to escape, but they didn’t – it broke my heart. I once was in hospital, in quarantine. I don’t think I’d have had the willpower to maroon myself forever.

Jimmy still dreams about the girl he once intended to follow to Australia, while the arrival of the caretaker's troubled wife introduces another complicated relationship into his isolated existence. What did you want these relationships to reveal about his hopes for a life beyond the island?

It’s always been about allowing himself to feel worthy. He’s lived his life governed by his own prejudices, rightly or wrongly.

Writing about leprosy brings with it centuries of fear, misunderstanding and stigma. What did your research reveal about attitudes towards the disease in early twentieth-century New Zealand, and was there anything you discovered that particularly surprised you?

I hadn’t expected the generosity of their visitors, or the visits at all. True, patients and visitors were physically separated, but to travel across rough waters to lift the spirits of leprosy sufferers, and to spend money on them during a period of economic hardship was not what I’d expected. 

You lived in Christchurch, giving you a personal connection to the part of New Zealand in which the novel is set. Did knowing the landscape yourself influence the way you imagined Jimmy's world and the contrast between Quail Island and the life continuing beyond it?

So much! It allowed me to see what they’d seen and feel as I was walking in their footsteps.

At its heart, Walking in the Shadow seems to ask what freedom really means when society continues to define someone by their past. What do you hope readers will take away from Jimmy's story?

That there’s always hope, as long as we find a way to connect with other people and with our own humanity. It’s a story of resilience and the power of friendship and love. 

A huge thank you to Carmen Radtke for joining me today and sharing the fascinating history behind Walking in the Shadow.

If you enjoy thoughtfully researched historical fiction, lesser-known stories from the past and novels exploring friendship, resilience and the human need for acceptance, then Walking in the Shadow is certainly one to add to your reading list. Pick up your copy of Walking in the Shadow HERE Read with #KindleUnlimited

Carmen Radtke

Carmen has spent most of her life with ink on her fingers and a dangerously high pile of books and newspapers by her side.

She has worked as a newspaper reporter on two continents and always dreamt of becoming a novelist and screenwriter.

When she found herself crouched under her dining table, typing away on a novel between two earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, she realised she was hooked for life.

The shaken but stirring novel made it to the longlist of the Mslexia competition, and her next book and first mystery, The Case Of The Missing Bride, was a finalist in the Malice Domestic competition in a year without a winner. Since then she has penned several more cozy mysteries, including the Jack and Frances series set in the 1930s.

Carmen now lives in Italy with her human and her four-legged family.

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