Zhanna Slor’s debut novel is a fun mix of genres – a bit of memoir, a bit of mystery, and a lot of love for Milwaukee. “At the End of the World, Turn Left” is set not only in the city, but partially near the UWM campus. Slor, a 2008 graduate who majored in English, is set to release her novel on April 20. The book is available locally through Lion’s Tooth bookstore and also available through commercial retailers.
Before its release, Slor sat down to talk about her work, her relationship with Milwaukee, and the stories from her childhood that shaped her characters.
Tell me about the book.
It’s a literary mystery that takes place mostly in Riverwest and some on the East Side. It’s about two sisters who get tangled up in their father’s shady USSR past. The father asks the older sister, Masha, to come back from living abroad in Israel to help him find the younger sister, Anna, who goes missing in Riverwest. As Masha looks for Anna, it brings up old demons that she’s been avoiding.
You also see Anna, six months prior, and what brings about her drop off the face of the earth.
Why set the book in Milwaukee?
I started the book when I was in my 20s and I was living in Chicago. I was trying to work through my childhood and through my experiences in Milwaukee. When I was in college, I found the first community I ever really felt comfortable with in Riverwest. It’s very unique. I’ve always wanted to set something in Riverwest.
What’s your favorite thing about Riverwest?
Fuel Café, although it’s closed now, which is so sad. It’s almost like a character in my book. I spent like every day studying at Fuel.
And some of your book is set right here at UWM, right?
Anna is a student at UWM, so she lives on the East Side on Oakland and Prospect, based on the house I first lived in when I attended UWM. It’s very present in the book – UWM, and the area around it.
I understand this book started out as a very different piece of work.
It took such a journey. It was (originally) an essay collection. Then I turned it into a memoir because (my editor at the time) said it needed more of a plot arc to sell it. The problem was, when we put it in a memoir, my life story was not that interesting. I was like, what if we turned it into a novel? That’s where I started the younger sister’s storyline, Anna, the one who is a college student.
I threw out the whole book and started over. I made up this whole new plot for her; now that she wasn’t me, it was much easier. Then the publisher dropped it and I sat on it for a while, revising and rewriting her storyline.
A year or so later, (editor and bookseller) Tim Hennessey was doing a ‘Milwaukee Noir’ story collection and asked me to be a part of it. I said, ‘That sounds fun. That needs to be set in Riverwest.’ I started writing the older sister’s storyline, thinking it would be related to Anna but a separate project. But then I was like, wait, these would work really well together! So, I started weaving them together and that turned into the current version of the book.
Was there a favorite part for you to write?
There are some scenes with the grandparents in the book that still make me laugh when I read them. They are almost word-for-word things that happened with my grandparents. They’re both dead, so it’s almost like I get to hang out with them again every time I read it.
Also, I really like the scenes between Masha and Liam in the beginning, chapter two and three. In the beginning, Masha is returning from Israel and her friend tells her to check out this punk house in Riverwest called Valhalla, which is kind of a joke and kind of a reference to one of the punk houses that was around in 2006 or ’07. People who are into the music scene will know it.
You mostly write essays and have won awards for your work. How was writing a novel?
My (new) editor was really helpful. She would tell me things like, ‘This part is great, but let’s work on the tension. We’re a crime publisher; this needs way more crime.’ I kept having to put these poor characters into criminal situations and was getting stressed out for them. I’m so used to writing essays about feelings and memories, so it was quite a learning experience to write something with tension and plot and clues.
Do you really get stressed out for your characters?
Yes! I get stressed when I read stressful situations in books. There’s this part at the end that I still get so stressed out reading that I have to skim it. I was surprised I could even write the thing, but I did manage. I get very attached to the characters – especially Anna, because she did start out as a version of me at 19.
There’s a lot of you woven into this book, in fact. Some side characters are UWM students like you, and some are immigrants from the USSR, like you. Can you talk about your experiences that helped form your characters?
My family immigrated from Ukraine when I was five and my sister was seven, similar ages to the characters in the book. We didn’t speak any English at first. I was obsessed with going back home and wouldn’t accept that we wouldn’t go back home.
I remember spending a lot of time with my grandparents. They basically raised us. My parents worked two jobs and attended UWM to get English versions of their Soviet degrees, so they were busy. I learned English over the summer in JCC camp, and when I started school at the Atwater kindergarten, I was already fluent. Kids learn so fast.
The downside, of course, is that my Russian is now very bad. It started going downhill when we moved to Hartland when I was 10 and were no longer around my grandparents or other Russians. My parents also insisted that we speak English in the house. I still understand enough to get by, but I don’t feel comfortable having deep conversations.
It’s a huge theme of my book, actually. It created this wall between me and my grandparents. I could never really talk to them in the way that I wanted to as an adult.
Why should people read your book?
It’s a very fun read. I’ve heard that from a few early readers. It grabs you from the first page – it’s a mystery; you want to know what happens! Second, it’s an interesting cross-section of cultures. There’s Riverwest, there’s Russian immigrants, Jews, artists. It’s not normally what you would read in a mystery book or even a literary book. That makes it very fun too. Also, it’s representing Riverwest and UWM. Milwaukee people should enjoy the local tidbits.
By Sarah Vickery, College of Letters & Science