Julieta: Claude and Camille is a poignant description of the love between Monet and his first wife, Camille. After bearing him two children, she died at the young age of thirty-two. I love protagonists who have secrets. What was most challenging or revelatory about writing Camille's secrets?

Stephanie Cowell: First, I'd like to say that Camille came to the page slowly. There is so little known about her character because it is believed Monet's second wife may have thrown away Camille's diaries and letters. Monet also did not keep things. So as a novelist, I spent hours and hours looking at the portraits of her by Monet to find her. He never painted anyone again so much. Her character formed  from two young women I had known in my twenties. One lived a kind of dramatic life, on the edge of reality. She seemed larger than life. She died young and had secrets. The second young woman made up her life to be fantastical. Soon she did not know what was true and was often confused. Friends did not know what they could believe. 

Julieta: You convey with great pathos Monet's poverty at the beginning of his career, and how his father refused to help him. Later in the novel, unable to support himself, Camille, and their infant son (Is this correct? Do they already have a son?), Monet attempts suicide. What was your experience writing about Monet's attempted suicide? How did you approach such a dark moment in his life?

Stephanie Cowell: This was a very hard scene to write, very painful. In actual life he threw himself in the river, but I altered it to cutting his wrists. He did have a son then and a wife, and he couldn't make money with his paintings and did not know else to do to support them. He came to Paris determined to conquer the art world and sometimes was thrown from his rooms for not paying the rent. I found the scene so painful when I first wrote it that I cut it out and when my book was in production with Random House, I told my editor I wanted to put it back in. Several great artists have ended their lives young when rejected and hungry for year after year. 

Julieta: Monet found solace and purpose in the landscapes he painted. Did immersing yourself in his world and his relationship with nature provide sustenance during your six-year journey with this book?"

Stephanie Cowell: I totally immersed myself in his world. I had of course about 75 books and visited museums in several countries and went twice to Giverny, his final home an hour or two outside Paris where he build his immortal gardens which remain today. I used to walk in the park and by flower beds in NYC where I live and try to see them through his eyes. I used to walk down to the river and watch the changing light on the water. When I signed off on the final draft with my editor, I walked down to the river and sat there just stunned. The novel has a huge scope. In addition to his story, it tells the whole story of the hungry young artists who formed the Impressionist movement. Looking back at the book now, I don't know how I had the perseverance to do it!