Makkai keeps a Google calendar of major world events set during the years in which her novels are set. “Ultimately, it worked for me because this wasn’t just a character-driven novel where all the conflict comes out of people’s own flaws it’s a novel about the ways the world comes at you no matter who you are or what you do.” (3) 3. Moving the timeline presented its own set of difficulties, so she needed to incorporate the attacks into the story. It wasn’t something that could be left out of a story set in Paris in 2015. Makkai was writing Fiona’s story, set in 2015 Paris, when the 2015 terrorist attacks happened there. Makkai started getting interested in the “art guy” she was talking to, who became the character Yale Tishman. The subplot of the book involving Nora, an elderly woman who was an artist’s muse in the 1920s Paris art community, was originally the focus. Rebecca Makkai did not originally set out to write a novel about the AIDS crisis. 11 Things to Know About The Great Believers 1.
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