‘So I just get this tiny snapshot of extreme humanity at its most tempestuous or its most vulnerable almost … I obviously have had a lifetime of influence of what humans can do when they're pushed to the edge in whatever way. And that obviously has to kind of influence how I see humanity and therefore how I write characters in a way.’

Michelle Johnston is the author of THE REVISIONISTS and she is also an emergency physician, so in this me-alone episode (Rachael had lost her voice!) I had questions to ask her about the relationship between those two disciplines and also about the new novel (bio and blurb below). She had many interesting things to say, as I’m sure you’ll agree once you listen/watch!

- Sophie

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ABOUT MICHELLE JOHNSTON

Michelle Johnston is an author and an emergency physician. She is a Staff Specialist at the Royal Perth Hospital Emergency Department, a busy inner-city trauma centre where she works as both clinician and teacher. Michelle's first novel, Dustfall, was published by UWA Publishing in February 2018 and shortlisted for the MUD Literary Prize for a debut novel in 2019. Her second novel, Tiny Uncertain Miracles, was published by HarperCollins in 2022. Her latest novel is The Revisionists, which is an absorbing, unputdownable novel about ambition – and how we curate our own stories and rescript our memories in order to survive.

ABOUT THE REVISIONISTS

Upper East Side, Manhattan, 2023: Christine Campbell, former journalist, turns on the television to watch a documentary paying homage to her Pulitzer Prize–shortlisted coverage of the unrest in 1999 in the North Caucasus. She is newly widowed, wealthy and attempting to write a memoir celebrating her bold life and significant achievements in writing about the silencing of women during conflict.

But truth has a way of resurfacing, even when buried deep beneath money, memory and reinvention. When Dr Frankie Pearson, Christine’s oldest – and estranged – friend, knocks on her door, the pair must reconcile their memories and come to terms with the far-reaching and disastrous decisions they both made over twenty years ago. The Revisionists examines the malleability of memory and the slippery nature of the truth – and the lengths that people will go to avoid facing both.

For more information about Rachael Johns: https://www.rachaeljohns.com

For more informationabout Sophie Green: https://sophiegreenauthor.com

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