By Natalia de Cuba Romero

IF NEW YORK CITY real estate were in Vienna. The Inspector just “sprang into
cheaper, we might be talking about existence.” But the wife she provided for
Jody Shields the artist. But although him had a mind of her own. “When
this Nebraska native couldn’t find Erszébet came onto the scene, she just took
studio space in the Big Apple, she over. She wasunstoppable.”
found that her second love—writ- The resulting book is a rich tapestry of
ing—fit right on her desk. So she food, folklore, forensics, biology, history,
turned her talents to the keyboard, to sexuality and meticulous detective work, a
the delight of readers the world over. gripping story encased in marvelous
Shields is the author of The Fig description, made more incredible given
Eater, a bestselling psychological that Shields has never been to Vienna. “The
murder mystery set in the Vienna of Vienna I pictured doesn’t exist,” she says.
1910, the birthplace and time of “It’s from a time we can no longer visit.”
Freudian psychology. Jody Shields The Fig Eater was a first novelist’s
While Shields wrote The Fig Eater dream. Little, Brown paid six figures for
fairly quickly—“I had just saved enough [money] to the manuscript. Miramax has optioned it. It has
last a year and a half, so that was all the time I become a staple of book clubs nationwide and has
had”—the road to becoming a bestselling novelist been translated into 14 languages.
was not a straight one. All of this has afforded Shields the opportunity
“I had always wanted to write a novel,” she tells to sit down and write some more. Her first screen-
The Connection. “But it took me a long time to fig- play is being shopped around, and at the time of this
ure out that no one can tell you how to do it.” interview she was putting the finishing touches on
She started writing 10 years ago, when she real- her second novel, a love story set in World War II
ized that without a studio she had to switch gears England. Other than that, she says, her life hasn’t
from her two studio-art master’s degrees. She changedmuch.
worked as an editor at The New York Times and “I’m still sitting here at my desk,” she says. “It’s
Vogue and published two books on fashion history: no easier to write the second one than the first. The
All That Glitters and A Stylish History. second one holds all sorts of new terrors.”
“Fashion history is a labor of love,” Shields says. The second novel may be terrifying for the writer,
“They don’t sell hundreds of thousands of copies. I but for Jody Shields’ readers it is all about thrilling
couldn’t afford to continue to do that.” So she wrote anticipation. And who knows? Perhaps the next one
a screenplay, a black comedy about World War II. will allow her to get that art studio after all. C
“Then I realized it would be more difficult to sell a
screenplay than a book.” Natalia de Cuba Romero is a freelance writer and
It was then, while reading about early psycho- voracious reader who divides her time between
analysis, that she ran across Dora, a patient of New York and Puerto Rico.

BRIGI T TE LACOMBE

Pennie Clark Ianniciello Costco Book Buyer

THIS MONTH, my pick is The Fig Eater, by Jody Shields. When a young woman is found brutally murdered in a city park, the unnamed police officer in charge, called the Inspector, takes a decidedly psychological and rational approach to the investigation. But 1910 Vienna was also a melting pot, seasoned with Hungarian spices and Gypsy folklore. The Inspector’s Hungarian wife, Erszébet, launches her own secret investigation, invoking the powers of intuition and mysticism. The rational and the intuitive compete to solve the mystery in this gripping tale of repressed and expressed passion at the edge of World War I.

Shields may be trained in visual arts, but she offers readers a first novel that delivers on plot, scene setting and character development.—PCI

The Fig Eater is available at most Costco warehouses and at costco.com.

Sigmund Freud.

Signed book

“When I read about this patient, I [also] read a letter Freud had written to his daughter,” Shields recalls. “He said things like ‘The case was beginning to yield to his picklocks.’ I said to myself,

‘Wow, he sounds like a detective.’ That was my ‘Eureka!’ moment.”

Shields then plunged into research, combing the New York Public Library

(“It’s a great way to procrastinate,” she says), while the characters bubbled into the story. Dora became the murdered girl, and her bizarre circumstances mirror the real-life Dora’s.

The fig—the fictional Dora’s last meal—was drawn from a true murder case

giveaway

98124-1088; or fax it to (425) 313-6718.

No purchase is necessary. Entries must be received or

Costco has five autographed postmarked by midnight, copies of Jody Shields’ The Fig September 1, 2005. Void where Eater to give away. To enter, prohibited. Employees of Costco print your name, membership and their families are not eligi- number, address and daytime ble. Winners will be notified by phone number on a postcard or mail. One entry per household. letter and send it to: The Fig