The Costco Connection - October 2013

By Fran R. Schumer

VERONICA ROTH, THEN 21 and a senior at Northwestern University, was standing next to the trash bin in her apartment building when her literary agent told her news that would change her life. Not only did the editors at HarperCollins want to publish her first novel, but they liked it so much that they were making a preemptive offer—that is, an offer too good to refuse.

Three years later, Roth is mentioned in the same breath as J.K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyer and, most of all, Suzanne Collins. Like Collins’ The Hunger Games, Roth’s Divergent trilogy is classified as “dystopian” because it is set in a future that is grim. Roth’s first two books, Divergent and Insurgent, both occupied the No. 1 position on the New York Times best-seller list and together have sold more than 4 million copies. A movie adaptation of Divergent, starring Shailene Woodley (the older daughter in the movie The Descendants) and Theo James (Lady Mary’s inconveniently dead lover in season one of Downton Abbey), is scheduled for release next March, and this month, on October 22, the final novel in the trilogy, Allegiant, will go on sale.

Roth, 25, who lives in Chicago with her
husband, the photographer Nelson Fitch, is
still reeling from the excitement. “It’s been a
little crazy,” says Roth, who has been writing
stories since she was “too old for playing pre-
tend.” Success, however, especially at her age,
can be daunting. “The best aspect of it is hav-
ing written something that connects me with
so many readers, especially young readers
whom I love and care
about,” she says. The
worst aspect of success
is the terrific pressure
it creates: “the fear of
disappointing people
once they start to
believe in you,” she
explains. “With each
subsequent book,
arts & entertainment

25-year-old
novelist
stares down
major success

The Costco Connection Veronica Roth’s Allegiant will be available in most Costco warehouses on October 22.

is the terrific pressure
“
you worry, ‘Oh no, are they going to hate this
one? Will I let them down?’ You feel this inter-
nal pressure not to disappoint people.”
For those who have missed out on the
Divergent trilogy craze, the stories take place
in a futuristic Chicago in which people are
stratified into five groups: Abnegation,
Erudite, Candor, Amity and Dauntless. At 16,
Beatrice (nickname: Tris), the plucky heroine,
must make a choice: Should she remain in
Abnegation, the group into which she was
born and in which selflessness is the chief vir-
tue, or should she join Dauntless, whose
members view daring as the means to fight
injustice. Given Roth’s own real-life fears—
“roller coasters, bugs of all kinds” and, more
recently, “being in front of an audience,” which
occurs a lot lately—it isn’t surprising that she
created a heroine whose choice demands
valor. The ultimate lesson of Dauntless, both
in literature and in life, Roth says, “is not about
having no fear, but of trying not to let that fear
determine your behavior.”
What is in the utopian future for this
dreamer of dystopian worlds? Roth’s plan is to
visit the set of the Divergent movie that is cur-
rently in production—“I want to enjoy that
experience to the fullest”—and take time to
“recover from this crazy, awesome ride.” C