Popular Australian author Natasha Lester has turned to a different time and place for her latest book The Chateau on Sunset. This time it’s 1950s and 60s Hollywood and the goings-on at the Chateau Marmont are witnessed by Aria Jones who goes to live there with her reclusive aunt.
The real life, world famous Chateau Marmont has been a popular base for actors, artists and creatives down the years including actor Keanu Reeves who spent many years there.
“After my last book, the emotionally draining The Mademoiselle Alliance set in France in World War II, I wanted to do something slightly lighter, a little bit more fun,” Natasha tells Have a Go News from her Perth home where she lives with her husband and three children.
“The research for this book was quite draining too, but not to the same extent. I thought I wanted to move away from the 1940s era and find a different story. It meant that I had to really sit down and embrace an idea from scratch because normally my ideas for future books come out of the research for a book that I’m currently working on.”
“So I started with a blank slate and decided to wait until a time when I couldn’t help but be inspired. I waited until I was on a train from Florence because you couldn’t really call yourself a writer if you weren’t inspired by the Tuscan countryside.”
“I’d just read Barbara Kinsolver’s Demon Copperhead and Ann Napolitano’s Hello Beautiful which are both retellings of classic novels and I thought, ‘gosh, my favourite classic novel is Jane Eyre,’ and I could see the Chateau Marmont as the gothic Thornfield Hall so that was where the inspiration came from.”
The Chateau On Sunset tells of Aria Jones who is sent to live with her aunt as a child after the deaths of both her parents. Chateau Marmont is a hotel on Hollywood Boulevard with a notorious reputation.
Left alone to wander the hotel, Aria sees everything, discovering an insidious secret that will haunt her childhood. She hides out in the hotel’s library until one day the hotel is sold to the mysterious rock star, Theo Winchester and his troubled daughter Adèlé.
What unfolds from here, is a story with many highs and lows which takes the reader around Hollywood and Capri and back to Los Angeles, written in the beautiful Natasha Lester style that captivates readers.
“I went and stayed at Chateau Marmont twice last June to get the feel of the place because it’s a hotel where they don’t really take photos to protect the privacy of guests,” Natasha says. “All the rooms are furnished differently and you can feel the history when you walk in the door.
“It was so much fun, such a great event, I absolutely fell in love with it. The pool is amazing, it’s a Los Angeles oasis, I think.”
Aria comes across as a strong, spirited woman in the book, an element Natasha aims to bring out in her writing.
“Yes, I try to do that and one of my goals is to give people dreams, hopes and aspirations and, hopefully, these women may be inspired to find their own inner self.”
“I think Aria goes on quite a journey. She starts off having her own mind, but being afraid to express that and being very much a loner because of what life has taught her.
“She has boundless quantities of love inside her but she doesn’t quite want to give that away just yet because she’s scared of the consequences. And then, of course, we see her find her voice and confidence and realise that she doesn’t need to be invisible over the course of the story, which I think is a true journey for many women.”
Natasha says her research for her new book saw her listen to lots of music and watch movies of the time so that she could really soak up the 1950s and 60s and check out the fashion.
“There might have been beehive hairdos then but there’s a lot more in fashion especially when Aria goes to Capri. I was looking at photos of Jackie Kennedy there in headscarf, white pants and black top and that was the inspiration for the second part of Aria’s life.”
Natasha hopes that her book can sweep readers up and make them feel as if they have stepped out of the terrible events currently happening in today’s world.
“It’s a story where we should get a strong sense of satisfaction at the end and that’s what I want to give my readers.”
Natasha is about to embark on a national book tour and then heads on a US book tour to Los Angeles, South Carolina, Ohio and Florida and other places.
Her next book is Girl of the Year and, after that, she hopes to take a well-earned break.
The Chateau on Sunset by Natasha Lester ($34.99, Hachette), is out now.
