1–What is the title of your latest release?
2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
Bess and Joni’s lives are ripped apart when their friend Evangeline dies on their dream vacation in Greece, the summer after they graduate high school.
The nightmare continues when the two girls are arrested following her death and, as the world’s media turns their attention on them, they find that they’re judged not only for this one night but for every choice they’ve made leading up to it.
Now, ten years later, Bess and Joni are back in California and no longer speaking, but the past threatens to catch up with them both when Joni appears out of the blue asking Bess for a favor…
3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
I started writing it during another grim winter lockdown in London when I was dreaming of Greece – the ocean and sun and the clean whites and blues of the towns. The book is set between the Greek Islands in 2008 and Malibu in 2018, and despite the exotic locations there is a creeping sense of claustrophobia in both timelines.
4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Ooh, great question! In the 2018 storyline, Bess and Joni have both all but stopped conforming to social norms (with very different results) and I think this would make them a fascinating hang but not necessarily an easy one! I would hang out with the teenage trio, but you couldn’t pay me to actually go back to that point in life where everything feels so critical and urgent.
5–What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Bess is observant, inscrutable, loyal.
6–What’s something you learned while writing this book?
I learned that I need to write something that both makes me feel truly excited and teaches me something. I’d just scrapped a novel that I’d spent a year working on (even though it never felt right), and I knew that whatever I wrote next had to be entirely from my heart. I want to be surprised by my characters and if I focus too much on plot at the outset, or if I feel like I know the whole story from the start, then I don’t think the characters are given the space to unfold and grow in quite the same way.
7–Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I do some light editing as I draft to ease myself into the day’s writing but once I reach the final third I tend to just write to the end and fix it later.
8–What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
Pasta! I would eat it for every meal if it was socially acceptable. And marrons glacés in December.
9–Describe your writing space/office!
I write from my living room and my desk is part of my bookshelves (it’s a mid-century, modular thing!) so I’m surrounded by my favorite writers at all times. If I’m really flowing, I often find myself on the sofa, but my back never thanks me for it later.
10–Who is an author you admire?
Eve Babitz. She was such a brilliant and incisive writer but there’s also this true sense of playfulness in her work. It feels like she was enjoying herself and I think that’s a lovely thing to experience as a reader, all these decades later.
11–Is there a book that changed your life?
LITTLE WOMEN – it made me fall in love with writing.
12–Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
It was a (rare) snowy evening in London. My agent had told me I’d hear either way if anyone had offered on my first book but, as the hours post-deadline slipped away, I gave up hope of hearing anything good. Instead, I played my favorite song loudly and lit a stick of palo santo to reset, and told myself I’d just start writing again the next day. Then I got the email with the offer, and I SCREAMED.
13–What’s your favorite genre to read?
I’m never super clear on the genres, but mainly literary fiction and general fiction. But really any stories about complex people making complex choices, or just figuring out how to exist.
14–What’s your favorite movie?
At the moment, AFTERSUN.
15–What is your favorite season?
Spring, always!
16–How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
I’m a nightmare on my birthday. I always pretend I don’t want to do anything then demand everyone I know come and celebrate with me at the last minute.
17–What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I just watched Stolen Youth, which is a 3-part documentary about the Sarah Lawrence students who ended up in a cult. It’s completely devastating but such a sensitive and stark portrait of coercive control, which is something I explored in my first novel, The Comeback. Whether it’s an abusive partner or a cult leader, so many of the mechanisms and methods of control are the same and it’s so important to recognize the signs and destigmatize it, which I think this documentary does so well.
I also just finished reading Manifesto: On Never Giving Up by Bernardine Evaristo, in which she tells the incredible story of her life, creativity and her fight against the mainstream. It’s an inspiring read.
18–What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Italian!
19–What do you do when you have free time?
It’s hard to feel like any time is free, but I love walking my dog with my husband or going for dinner with friends or browsing in a bookshop or vintage furniture store.
20–What can readers expect from you next?
I’m working on my third novel, which is about two female writers navigating their friendship and rivalry in Hollywood in the 1960s and 1970s, all while figuring out how much of themselves they need to sacrifice for their art.
BEFORE WE WERE INNOCENT by Ella Berman
A summer in Greece for three best friends ends in the unthinkable when only two return home in this new novel from Ella Berman. . . .
Ten years ago, after a sun-soaked summer spent in Greece, best friends Bess and Joni were cleared of having any involvement in their friend Evangeline’s death. But that didn’t stop the media from ripping apart their teenage lives like vultures.
While the girls were never convicted, Joni, ever the opportunist, capitalized on her newfound infamy to become a motivational speaker. Bess, on the other hand, resolved to make her life as small and controlled as possible so she wouldn’t risk losing everything all over again. And it almost worked. . . .
Except now Joni is tangled up in a crime eerily similar to that one fateful night in Greece. And when she asks Bess to come back to LA to support her, Bess has a decision to make.
Is it finally time to face up to what happened that night, exposing herself as the young woman she once was and maybe still is? And what if she doesn’t like what she finds?
Women’s Fiction Psychological | Suspense Psychological [Berkley, On Sale: April 4, 2023, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593099544 / eISBN: 9780593099568]
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About Ella Berman
Ella Berman grew up in both London and Los Angeles and worked at Sony Music before starting the clothing brand London Loves LA. She lives in London with her husband, James, and their dog, Rocky.
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