🖇️ Life-Changing Advice from a Literary Agent: Break Down the Wall

On self-erasure, authenticity, and connecting with readers

The castle in which we have never lived— Bracciano Italy

Dutch Coffee

“There’s a wall between you and your writing,” my literary agent in Amsterdam told me over a cup of strong Dutch coffee at her kitchen table.

I was twenty-seven and had just finished my first novel. She was near the end of her career and had brought Don DeLillo and Paul Auster to Dutch audiences.

“What wall?” I asked.

I’d given myself completely to my story, or so I thought. I’d carried my flawed characters through escalating troubles until they changed in ways neither they nor I had foreseen. I’d written about betrayal and sex, the intimacy and complexity of female friendship. What more did she want?

“There’s something you don’t allow us to see,” said my agent.