Susan Choi on Her Booker Prize Nominated Novel "Flashlight"

Booker Prize Nomination

• 🏆 Susan Choi has been shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize for Outstanding Fiction for her novel, "Flashlight".
• 👏 She expresses thrill and excitement about the nomination, calling it wonderful.

"Flashlight" Plot and Themes

• 🌊 The novel begins with a young girl and her father on a beach in Japan, where the father is presumed drowned and the daughter is later found.
• 🔍 The story follows the daughter, Louisa, as she copes with the traumatic loss of her father and eventually discovers that "all is not as it seems."

Inspiration and Research

• 🇯🇵 Choi lived in Japan for a short period as a child, an experience that made a significant impression and served as an inspiration for the story's setting.
• ✍️ While the story is not autobiographical, the childhood experience in late 1970s Japan was the impetus for writing it.
• 📚 The author conducted extensive research, which she admits sometimes threatened to overshadow the writing process, but also provided solutions for plot holes.

Advice for Aspiring Authors

• 🗓️ Choi advises aspiring writers to focus on writing every day, regardless of the quality or coherence of the output.
• 💪 She emphasizes the importance of consistently working the writing muscle, even for short periods, stating that daily writing has transformed her own life when she's been able to adhere to it.