Jennifer Donnelly's 'Revolution' is released on October 12, 2010.

In this age of iPhones and portable entertainment there aren’t many people who can get young adults excited about history - but Jennifer Donnelly can.

Donnelly’s novel A Northern Light (published in the UK as A Gathering Light) won awards around the world for its engaging and intriguing take on the Big Moose Lake murder case of 1906. In her latest novel, Revolution, which hits shelves on October 12, she takes us back even further in time.

Revolution is the story of Andi Alpers, a gifted but troubled young girl living in Brooklyn Heights, who is still struggling to get over the tragic death of her younger brother. In a stunning twist, Revolution also tells the story of Alexandrine Paradis, an impoverished actress in revolutionary France who comes to the attention of the royal family at the most violent moment in their history. As the stories of Andi and Alexandrine intertwine, Revolution explores the ways we deal with loss, love, and the challenges of mental illness.

Jennifer Donnelly will be traveling around the country to promote Revolution, starting with two events in Seattle. On October 12 she will be reading and signing at the U-District University Bookstore, starting at 7pm; then, on October 13, she will be at the Barnes & Noble in Lynwood, also at 7pm. For her full book tour, which includes stops in Chicago, New Orleans and Kansas City, please check Jennifer Donnelly’s website.

Before Jennifer heads off on the tour we asked her a few questions about Revolution, and the true story that inspired it.

Dan Coxon: I see that Revolution sprang from a newspaper article you read in 1999. Why the 10-year interim?

Jennifer Donnelly: Yes, Revolution got started ten years ago, although I didn’t know it then. I was reading the New York Times and saw an article – “Geneticists’ Latest Probe: The Heart of the Dauphin.” It showed a picture of a glass urn with a heart in it.

The article said that a human heart, very small and very old, that had been in a glass urn in the Basilica of St. Denis in Paris, had just undergone DNA testing and had been found to be the heart of Louis Charles, the son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

I knew, as most people do, that during the French Revolution Louis and Marie Antoinette were imprisoned and eventually guillotined by the revolutionaries. What I didn’t know, was that after the king and queen were executed, their children were kept in prison. Marie-Therese would survive her imprisonment and would be released in 1795. Eight-year-old Louis-Charles was not so lucky.

As heir to the throne, he was seen as a threat by the revolutionaries. It was rumored that powerful people were plotting to free the child and rule in his name. To prevent this, Robespierre and his crew essentially had Louis Charles walled up alive. He was kept in a small dark cold cell. Alone. Without enough food or a fire. He became sick. And he went mad. And eventually he died. At the age of ten.

Needless to say, this article really upset me. I couldn’t stop wondering how the idealism of the revolution devolved into such cruelty. I went to bed thinking about it and woke up thinking about it. I recognized the feeling – it’s how I feel when a book is starting inside me. But I couldn’t act on that feeling because I had other books due at the time. Nonetheless, the story stayed with me. Time moved on. I finished the other books. And I had a child. Which changed my life in many wonderful ways.

In one not so wonderful way, I somehow lost my protective shell. The one that enables us to hear a horrible story on the news and still go on with our lives. When my daughter came along, suddenly every news story about an abused child destroyed me. As a new mother, I knew what a child was in a way that I had not before. I knew how fragile and innocent children are. And that someone could hurt them, that they could starve in a famine, or be injured by a bomb….well, I could not understand that and I couldn’t bear it and I wondered, as I never had before, what kind of world is this that allows it? And how do we live in it?

These questions were haunting me and I had to find answers. So I set about trying to do that the only way I know how, by writing a story. I remembered that article I’d cut out of the Times. That small heart in its glass urn took on a new and symbolic meaning for me. What happened to Louis Charles was unspeakable, and yet, I felt that if I could face it and grapple with it, it might help me find my answers.

DC: Is it right that you met with Gabriel Byrne for some background on the actor’s craft? How did that come about?

JD: I happened to meet Gabriel in a cafe in New York City one morning when we were both getting breakfast. I was, at the point, very much struggling with my character Alex – a young French street actor who lived in Paris during the 18th century. Gabriel noticed that I was reading Thomas Carlyle on the Revolution and we started chatting. I talked about my book and my character and he very kindly answered some questions I had on acting. It was a very strange and serendipitous thing, and he is now the angel Gabriel to me, because he appeared just when I needed help. This also happened with another esteemed Irish actor, Barry McGovern, right around the same time. I think the universe was throwing me a major bone.

DC: The structure echoes Dante’s Divine Comedy. Why did you settle on a 14th century Italian poem for inspiration?

JD: The Divine Comedy is one of my favorite poems. Dante is depressed, and on the verge of ending it all, and then along comes Virgil, the writer he most admires, and says, “Come on, Dante, man up. We’re going on a road trip. We’re going to get you out of this.” I mean, imagine it…you’re at your lowest point and the artist you most admire takes you by the hand and leads you through Hell, and when you come out, you can “rebehold the stars.” Amazing.  I wanted Andi – led into the underworld by her own Virgil – to travel on much the same journey.  For better or worse, I went along with them; getting this book written was at times an emotionally crushing experience.  But like Andi and Dante before her, when it was over, I could finally once again see the stars.

DC: At times the novel touches on some of the more gruesome details of the French Revolution. Did you find yourself having to omit or censor any of the historical details, given that you’re writing for young adults?

JD: When you’re dealing with something as vast as the French Revolution in a mere 472 pages, you omit a lot – no matter who your audience is. You have to carefully consider what you’re leaving out, just as carefully as you consider what you’re putting in. I left out the most gruesome descriptions of the violent acts committed during the Revolution because they didn’t serve the story, just as a blow-by-blow account of the rise and fall of the various ruling factions wouldn’t have served the story.

DC: I imagine that you must have spent a lot of time in Paris as part of your research. What are your fondest (or strangest) memories of your time in the city?

JD: The catacombs were hard and scary and sobering. There’s a scene where Andi hears the dead talking to her down there. A very similar thing happened to me. Those skulls see you. I’m quite certain of it. They are lonely, bored, and needy and they will engage you if you’re not careful.

To hear more on Jennifer Donnelly’s inspiration for Revolution check out the video below, or catch her on her fall book tour.

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