“Fiction is a laboratory for empathy” (Exclusive)

Deborah Harkness begins every book with a question, so it was only fitting that PEOPLE asked her a few of ours. The author of the bestselling All Souls series will publish the fifth book in the series, The Black Bird Oracleon July 16th.

We spoke to her about how her background as an academic and historian influences her work, how “monsters” can help us approach uncomfortable subjects, and how she discovered a family connection to the Salem witch trials that she wasn’t aware of when she started writing about the occult.

The following conversation has been edited and shortened for clarity.

You have a research background in the history of magic and science in Europe, and have taught European history and the history of science and palaeography. How does this background influence your fiction?

When I was a student at Mount Holyoke College, I took a course called “Magic, Knowledge, and the Quest for Power in Renaissance Europe.” The professor asked, “How do you know what you think you know?” And since 1983, I have been trying to answer that question in my academic work.

My research process is actually a summary of everything I’ve learned, researched, and taught since 1983. I have a lot of respect for authors who attempt a historical project without having done any research since 1983. I don’t know how they do it. I still have to do research, but it’s about odd things like the size of coins or how far a horse can run on snowy ground in December.

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I love delving into that material aspect of magic’s past. And it means a lot to me as a reader when I read historical books or fantasy books that I feel like I’m in a real place with real things. That’s always my goal in my research, to bring that verisimilitude to things.

A small historical detail can go a long way. It’s like coriander: you want to use it as an accent.

Tell me why your stories deal with the occult and creatures we often consider monstrous.

I have a very smart friend who said supernatural beings are like monsters you can think with. Using a witch, a demon, or a vampire lets you talk about themes that, if rooted in an ordinary human character, would upset people. It allows us to play with differences, and maybe afterward we’ll feel a little more curious and empathetic about the very different way of being in the world, rather than judgmental. That’s my hope.

Because I believe that fiction is like a laboratory for empathy. You can put yourself in other people’s shoes.

Your works often focus on relationships, particularly family dynamics. Why do you think readers are so fascinated by these storylines?

Every family is different. There can be two families that have the same socioeconomic, cultural, religious and historical background, but they will not live the same life. These multiple personalities and the friction and conflict and then the cooperation – I love that very human dance.

I also believe that families have a lot of secrets. I am something like a professional secret hunter. Because the past is full of things that people have forgotten, neglected or overlooked. And I go in with my little learned trowel and try to dig them out. But the same goes for families: What is not What is said is just as important as what is said, and as a historian you want to look for the silences, because those silences can be just as revealing as what is said.

Speaking of family: You only recently found out something about your own.

I have given several interviews throughout my work (in my previous books). Discovery of the Witches, Shadows of the Night, The Book of Life And Time converter about how I had absolutely no connection to Salem. But because of COVID, I started working on my family tree again. And even though my father and I started family genealogy back in the 1980s, there’s so much online now that wasn’t there before, and I was able to create a new little branch of the family tree, and there it was: two accused and survived, one accused and executed.

And in both cases, I had no idea – none at all – that I was related to these people. It was really odd, because I had written about someone who was a Salem descendant and was convinced I wasn’t, and then it turned out I was.

That must have been a bit scary to hear that!

That’s right! And I wrote about a vampire with an inherited genetic disease and in 2021 I discovered I had a BRCA mutation and breast cancer as a result. For those who don’t believe in magic, I explain how back then – fast forward to 2024 – I started writing a book about a descendant of witches in search of her own power and a man struggling with an inherited genetic disease. I was that person the whole time, but I wasn’t aware of it.

A lot of what I’ve written about my legacy since I started working on it in 2008 is coming true in my own life 16 years later. And that’s pretty amazing. And I think having these monsters to think about has helped me develop my own perspective on some of the issues and challenges I’ve been facing recently.

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The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness will be released on July 16th and can be pre-ordered now wherever books are sold.