Celebrated author Doug Preston, known for his thirty-nine bestsellers and his role as the co-author of the Pendergast series, recently shared insights into the creation of the unique collective novel, “Fourteen Days.” The book, a collaboration with co-editor Margaret Atwood for the Authors Guild, features stories from 36 diverse authors of all backgrounds. It is an intermingling of human experience set against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fourteen Days: a unique collaborative effort

In an interview with How To Be Books, the Authors Guild president detailed the journey of conceptualising and crafting this ambitious project. “It was a very long journey,” Preston reflected. “When the pandemic hit, we suddenly came up with this idea of a group of New Yorkers living in a shabby tenement building on the lower east side, who are the left behinds,” “The Lost City of the Monkey God” author said. He explained that prior to their meeting, they were “like typical New Yorkers,” who ignored each other, but eventually began talking started telling stories to the group. Given that “the pandemic hit New York City extremely hard,” it made it a poignant setting for the ‘epic novellus.’

The novel’s creation was a team effort, led by Atwood’s recruitment prowess. “Margaret Atwood was the general editor, and she was the one who went out and helped recruit all these wonderful authors,” Preston said. “We wanted to level the playing field and make it anonymous and equal. So the only way you know who wrote which story is to go to the back of the book.”

The coalition of writers includes the likes of R. L. Stine, John Grisham, Celeste Ng, Tommy Orange, Mira Jacob, and many others. For this reason, Preston said that by concealing the authors’ identities, they aimed to “get away from the celebrity author, the best-selling author, the big-name author,” allowing readers to focus on the book itself.

The role of storytelling

Explaining the novel’s structure, Preston likened it to “The Decameron” and “Tales from the Thousand and One Nights,” with a frame narrative surrounding the individual stories. “The superintendent of the building, who’s a young woman named Jessy, is secretly recording all these stories that people are telling,” he clarified. “We rearranged the stories. We created new characters. We got rid of some other characters,” giving fictional closure to characters whom the reader grows to care about.

Preston’s personal stories within the novel, which he describes as “90% true,” reflect his contemplation of life during the pandemic. He emphasised the universal human need for storytelling, especially in times of crisis. “We tell each other stories to make sense of this, to try to find our place in this world […] I think storytelling is written into our genes.”

The novel’s alignment with the Authors Guild’s values

As for the novel’s significance, Preston highlighted its role in supporting the Authors Guild’s mission. “All the proceeds from this novel are supporting the Authors Guild in fighting book banning, in fighting the big artificial intelligence companies that have stolen hundreds of thousands of our books […] and to push back against big tech’s attack on copyright,” he stated.

Read: AI open letter: authors including Margaret Atwood urge companies to honour copyright

Despite the charitable project’s challenges, Preston found it immensely rewarding. “This was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life in terms of a literary project,” but admitted that after the four years spent creating it, there is something of “great literary value.”

“Fourteen Days,” published by HarperCollins, showcases evidence of human resilience and the enduring power of storytelling. As Preston concluded, “Books are what give ChatGPT, and other large language model AI systems their quality,” adding, “we’re going to win on behalf of the authors of America.”

“Fourteen Days” is available from February 6 and promises to be a compelling journey through the lives and stories of ordinary people facing extraordinary times.

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