Adam Fawer's backstory for IMPROBABLE

I’m not your typical novelist.

Before selling my novel to HarperCollins, I’d never written professionally. I wasn’t even an English major in college. In fact, I was quite the opposite. Although I’ve always been a decent writer, I always thought of myself as a numbers guy, so I went down a numeric path and studied economics. After college I got a master’s in statistics then got a job creating mathematical models.

When I got bored with that, I went to Stanford Business School, got an MBA then returned to New York City and entered the dot-com arena (yes, it was the late nineties). Three years later I was the Chief Operating Officer of About.com. I handled budgets, forecasted revenue, managed over a hundred people and kept running the numbers. Even better, I was making great money. I had everything I thought I ever wanted. Everything, that is, except a job I truly loved.

Then my good friend Stephanie Williams (www.stephaniewilliams.com) called me with some news that changed my life forever. She had been diagnosed with terminal breast cancer. This isn't something you expect to hear from an old college friend (especially one that’s only thirty).

The news hit me hard and really made me reevaluate my life. Sounds corny, I know, but it's true. My father had died of cancer when he was only 49 after working a job he hated for almost twenty years. I didn't want this to be my fate. Suddenly I had an incredible sense of urgency to stop messing around and start living my life to the fullest.

So, I thought back to when I was a kid. I didn’t have a normal childhood. When I was six years old, I contracted a rare illness that caused corneal scarring in both my eyes. I spent the next ten years in and out of hospitals, undergoing countless surgeries. The only thing that got me through were books on tape from the Commission for the Blind. Every night, when I was alone in the dark, I’d listen to a novel.

I "read" everyone from Judy Blume to Isaac Asimov to Stephen King to Michael Crichton to Tom Clancy. These authors and hundreds others gave me the one thing that my doctors and my parents could not—an escape. It didn’t take long for authors to eclipse all my other heroes. And so, unlike kids who dreamed of one day becoming a baseball star or an astronaut, I dreamed of becoming a writer.

When I was sixteen, my vision became stable enough to return to school fulltime. I fell into the typical high school routines with a passion, because I so desperately wanted to be just like everybody else. I went to college, became a numbers guy, and well, you know the rest.

So, after I talked with Stephanie, I decided to quit my job and try to pursue my childhood dream of becoming an author. As she had also always wanted to write a novel (she was an award-winning magazine writer), we made a pact. We would write together every day until we both had a completed manuscript. The next day, I took the subway to where she lived in Brooklyn Heights, headed out to Starbucks (our respective laptops carefully tucked beneath our arms), plugged in and began writing.

We wrote for almost two hours that day. And the next day. And the day after that. That first month, I don't think we missed a single day. Then Stephanie got sicker and had to go into the hospital; but I kept going. And when Stephanie was feeling better, she resumed writing as well.

It took me over a year before I had a manuscript good enough to sell but in October 2003 HarperCollins bought the English rights to my novel, IMPROBABLE. Stephanie went a different route and sold her novel to a colleague who was starting a new imprint. On June 21, 2004, I (along with about 100 others) attended Stephanie's book party. She said it was the happiest day of her life. Unfortunately, two weeks later, she lost her battle with cancer. It was an incredibly sad day, but her family and I wer comforted knowing that Stephanie had lived her dream.

Stephanie helped show me how important it is to do what you love because you never know how much time you have left. Now, I'm a full-time writer.

And that's how I decided to become a novelist.

Adam Fawer is the author of IMPROBABLE

Comments

[Allison Brennan]

Adam, your backstory is very powerful and motivating. Thank you for sharing.

[GIUSEPPE]

è il libro più bello,profondo, affascinante e commuovente mai letto. Non è un CASO che l'abbia trovato e mi sia appassionato. Sei grande! MI HAI LETTO NEL PENSIERO....L'INCOSCIO COLLETTIVO ESISTE!

[Tracy]

What was the name of Stephanie's book?

[cindy]

It is inappropriate to promote your book signings on unrelated sites like meetup. I am happy for your success but please respect our group.

[Judi]

I, too, would like to know the title to Stephanie's book & how to get it. IMPROBABLE was extremely interesting, truly enjoyed reading it. Not often I (very much a non-numbers person) would go back & re-read for that purpose, but after my friend returns the book it's definitely a re-read.

[Joya]

What an incredible and inspiring backstory! I think it serves to remind everyone that life is much too short. Thanks so much for sharing. :)

[ayça]

ı am ayça ,from turkey.
ı am really fascinated by the book and mr.fawer's style.while reading ı couldnt put it down.
thanks for mr.fawer
look forward to reading your second novel.

[***granma***]

olağanüstü bir kitap hazırlamışsınız sayın adam fawer...diğer kitaplarınızı dört gözle bekliyorum...olasılıksız'ı bir günde okudum ki bu muhteşem bi duygu... ilk defa bir kitap için yapılan yorumlarda okuyucuların geri kalan kısmına katılıyorum.kendinize çok iyi bakın.saygılar sevgiler :))))

[Menekse YILDIZ]

This is the wierdest book I have ever read.. I can't just stop reading it but at the same time I don't want to finish it.. It's like watching an action movie but on the other hand reding a philosphy book at the same time..

[leyla]

Hi
Im Leyla from Turkey
Improbable is a consuming book.I was in a construct while Im reading it.Sometimes I feel like fiction character and feel like in a movie.
Thanks for this book.

[Erkan Keser]

Hi
I'm Erkan from Istanbul-Turkey. It was a great pleasure to read this novel. I'm looking forward following novels by Mr. Fawer.

[okuryazar]

Adam, adam gibi adamsın gözüm;)

Biz türkler mi çok okuyan bir millet olduk -ki 5/11 olasılığı ile yorum yazmışız bu sayfaya- yoksa okuyan yüzlerce yabancı yorum yazmıyor da türkler -benim gibi- kendini öne atma peşinde mi çok koşuyor?

Adam, thanks for this fascinating novel, it has opened uncountable infinitely many intellectual doors in my brain. This book is the Uniformly Minimum Variance Unbiased Estimator of the unknown parameter of my taste of novel. My literature taste is highly satisfied at the point of reading this laudable novel.

Hem kitap okurum hem dehşet matematikçiyim hem ingilizce bilirim.

[Ceren]

hi
I'm ceren, from turkey.
I agree the other comments about improbable. It was a great book that ı couldn't stop reading. I'm a numbers person like you and i really like operations. So this book is just right for me. I really enjod while I was reading it. After I had read improbable, I began to think about possibilties and statistic. Now I'm saying ''Nothing is definite, every event can be happen at everytime, even if they seem 'improbable'.'' So it was the best book that I've even read.
I'm waiting for its film adaptation. I'm sure it would be great to see it on the screen:)

[kerem keremgil]

hi i am kerem
i am into vey well
i do turkish very probable
love you reading
i want second time with you
mr fawer my favourite

[Recep Ivedik]

Dear Adam,

I want to thank you for publishing your second novel first in Turkey, before even the US. Emphaty (it's "Empati" in Turkish) is a great book. You've done it again. When will "Emphaty" get published in the US? I want to read it in English as well.

[bahtiyar]

Süper bir kitap bir matematikçi olarak bu kitabı yazan beyne hayran kaldım

[nihat ük]

How can i write i don't know but I must write something about the backstory..It's really incredible..Everything is unbelievable,Adam's childhood dreams,meets with Stephanie,Stephanie's war with cancer,Adam's father so on...These effected to me...When I got 'improbable' between the my hands,i was so exciting and i finished it at that day..Now I will get 'emphaty'..One more thing,yes Adam you're not typical novelist,you are not normal :)

[DJ]

bu kadar yorumdan sonra okuyacagım bır eserın adamısın..

[nezihi]

i began to read your novel on monday and finished it on wednesday, such a lovely novel, the only thing i didn't like about the book is the main story, its kinda weak, i mean i loved the relationships mentioned in the book like philosoph maths, statistics or even chess but story seemed a little weak to me, but thats not so important, you save your life (senin canın sağolsun.

[fath]

hi adam,if u want come turkey just tell me than allthings will be ready for visit

[ceren cerengil]

fawer dear

i am on empat
i thingie novel just fine real
why the numeroloj
why these heppen
really fight your way in epistomoloj cool
fawer dear turkey salute you

[hasan]

everybody likes this book but i couldn't like it.the writer tries to be similar to dan brown.actually, i don't appreciate this behaviour.

[Betül]

Dear Adam,

I read "Improbable" and am still reading "Emphaty". I love all fiction thriller type of novels, but for me your books are different from other novels that you always set events on science. After I finish "Improbable", for 3 days I thought about book, and dreamed when I slept, it is so efficient. Mathematics, statistic and science are everything for me, thanks for your fascinating books!

[Ercan Kumcu]

This is a very known technique that Adam is appliying.

Find a interesting sceintific or historical fact. Twist it a little bit. Place your fiction on top of these scientific facts and make people read like hell. In fact I did it :)

[Ali]

One of the best fiction novels I've ever read. I am an engineer and I've worked with numbers all my life too. That makes the book much more interesting for me. Harikasınız.