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"  What inspired you to write The Headmaster&amp;#039;s Wife? I began this novel in the NICU at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Hospital, where my second daughter, Jane, had been born far too early. At the time, I was writing a very different novel about a soldier who returns from Iraq. Jane, in many ways, was a miracle. She weighed 1lb 14 oz at birth, and yet she managed to live six months, though she never left the hospital. After she died, I began to think deeply about the nature of grief, life, and what happens if, instead of holding it together, you shatter like glass? Wow. What a way for tragedy to inspire creativity, or at least a different creative perspective. In terms of setting, how did your own experiences living in Vermont and working as an educational leader there affect your writing?  I love writing about Vermont because the state is a web of small towns, and you cannot escape people. Everyone knows each other, and when people are forced to interact, you have the makings of good fiction. As a college president, I had a particular insight I could apply to Arthur, the headmaster, who also runs a school in the state. Though I have said this is the most honest thing I&amp;#039;ve ever written, I don&amp;#039;t want to suggest it is somehow autobiographical. It&amp;#039;s not. But that said, I think you always write what you know. Many of the places in this novel are worlds I know intimately. Why did you decide to structure the novel as you did, with different perspectives and points in time? We were totally duped by the start of the novel\u2014and completely surprised by how it turned out! I think deeply about structure, because it has to support the narrative and the story you are trying to tell. This book was a bit of a puzzle to put together. How I used time, for instance, functioned a lot like memory, and at its heart, this book is also about memory, about how two people can look back on their lives and see entirely different things. What surprised me was how much the unconventional structure contributed to the novel becoming a page-turner. I thought I was writing a rather literary meditation on marriage, and I think I did, but I also ended up with a real thriller. Tell us a bit about the starring couple, Arthur and Betsy. How do they evolve throughout the book? In some ways, Arthur and Betsy are star-crossed lovers brought together by the school. Arthur embodies everything that is the prestigious Lancaster School. He is a third-generation headmaster. His life has been scripted from birth. Betsy, on the other hand, is all about reinvention. She is escaping her life, and the school allows her to do that. As the book goes on, you realize that they are each being tested by the darkest crucibles of life. Ultimately, how they choose to respond defines who they are. What role does Russell play in Arthur and Betsy&amp;#039;s lives? Do you see him as the hero of the novel? I hadn&amp;#039;t thought of Russell as the hero of the novel, though I think you could make that case. There is fundamental goodness in Russell, a desire to do the right thing, and he is at first a victim of Arthur&amp;#039;s initial crime, but by the end, you get the sense that he will be more okay than the others. Russell has made better choices, perhaps not perfect ones, but better, and this book wrestles with the impact of the decisions we make and how they play out through our lives. [SPOILER ALERT: Do not read on if you don&amp;#039;t want to hear plot giveaways.] Can you give us some insight into Betsy and Arthur&amp;#039;s son Ethan, whom we don&amp;#039;t get to know as directly or thoroughly as the other characters because of his death at war in Iraq? I think Ethan is clearly rebelling against the burdens his father puts on him. It would be interesting to see, if he had lived, whether his position would have changed. Would he have taken a longer road but ended up at the destination his father wished for him? While Ethan appears only briefly in the book, he is the fulcrum around which the whole story turns. How do you interpret the end of the book?  I think it is open to interpretation, but in my mind, Betsy and Russell do end up together, or at least there is the hope of that. At the very minimum, I think they become wonderful friends. Arthur eventually gets better, though not fully, and returns to Lancaster, but never runs it again. Perhaps he moves in with his father into the clapboard house down the street, the place where old headmasters go to retire. What&amp;#039;s the last great book you read?  The Forgotten Waltz by the Irish writer Anne Enright. No one uses economy of language better to advance a story. It&amp;#039;s a beautiful, complex, nuanced novel. Do you have an all-time favorite author or book? The Great Gatsby is my favorite book, but I have lots of favorite writers. What are you working on now?  I&amp;#039;m working on a new novel that is still taking shape, also about love, marriage, and choices. And it will also be a bit of a thriller and a mystery, I think. Do you have any advice for aspiring novelists? Read everything you can, trust your own vision, and definitely be thick-skinned. Read the full review of The Headmaster&amp;#039;s Wife here. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/life/interviews/a17368/thomas-christopher-greene-interview/>