The Family Doctor springs from my anguish about violence against women. So many of us feel furious and heartbroken and helpless when we hear that yet another woman and her kids have been killed. Sometimes we rave about it to each other, other times we sit alone with the rage burning in our bellies.
I wasn’t sure how to tackle this territory without it becoming something tabloid or obvious or worthy—until I came up with a fictional story that I hope can carry some of that intense feeling. It’s inspired by real stories—some from my sister who’s a GP, some from lawyer friends, others I’ve researched.
The Family Doctor is a kind of transgressive daydream—what if we just killed a few of those monstrous bastards? I think there’s imaginative satisfaction in the fantasy and, to an extent, a reader can indulge that dark urge as they follow the arc of the main character, Paula Kaczmarek. But at the same time the story is about the moral danger in her choice and the limits of it to address the problem.
My aim was to give the novel the propulsive forward momentum of a thriller but without gimmicks or puzzles or withholding information in a tricksy way. I hope readers will stay hooked because characters they care about are under pressure and they want to know what the hell is going to happen next.
It’s important to me that the story always stays grounded in authentic emotion. The characters end up doing extreme things—such as committing murder—but they’re real people. Paula and her friend Anita could be any one of us. I think that means the moral dilemmas can land more sharply in a reader’s mind. What would I do in that situation? How would I feel afterwards? Would I dob in my friend in a situation like this?
Alongside the dark stuff, I’ve tried to keep a strong hold on the joyful and precious things that are at stake—friendship, the existence of supportive, tender relationships between men and women, the urge to protect vulnerable people, the glory of small children.
With The Family Doctor, I wanted to tell a story that matters, urgently, and make it a cracking good story, an addictive, emotionally real piece of fiction.
All the best
Debra Oswald