Curiosity and Compassion: A Guest Post by Nikki Erlick
The novel that took the world by storm in 2022 is finally out in paperback — just in time to bring to the beach. Read on for an exclusive guest post Nikki Erlick has penned for B&N readers on the inspiration behind this genre-bending tale and what she hopes readers learn from the characters in her story.
Paperback
$16.99
$18.99
The Measure
The Measure
By Nikki Erlick
In Stock Online
Paperback
$16.99
$18.99
Just in case you missed it the first time around, this genre-bending novel is back to invite you to question what it means to measure your own life and find out if you’d have the courage to go and make it count.
Just in case you missed it the first time around, this genre-bending novel is back to invite you to question what it means to measure your own life and find out if you’d have the courage to go and make it count.
The world of The Measure resembles our current world in nearly all ways except one: every adult in the novel receives a box, which contains a string that measures the length of their life.
Once I found myself occupying the world of The Measure, a world in which everyone was given the choice to learn how long they would live, the characters quickly began arriving. One by one, they appeared, as if knocking on the door in my mind, fueled by the seemingly infinite dilemmas sparked by the arrival of the strings. I knew that such a complex issue begged to be explored from a wide array of perspectives, each one offering a unique take on whether or not to open one’s box…and what to do with the knowledge.
What might happen to two people in love who received strings of different lengths? Nina and Maura appeared in my head, deeply committed to one another, and confronting a heartbreaking truth.
How might a doctor navigate this crisis? What might happen in a hospital? I tried to see through the eyes of Hank, a brave and stoic ER physician.
What about a soldier, someone making the choice to pursue a dangerous career? Two best friends and military cadets, Jack and Javier, emerged.
Could two people manage to fall in love within this strange new world? What barriers would they face? What questions would they ask themselves? Ben and Amie’s intimate pen-pal correspondence began to take shape on the page.
And, finally, what impact would the strings have on our society at large? What might be the social and political ramifications? Anthony and the looming presidential election started to influence the story.
(There were, of course, plenty more questions and plenty more potential characters…but when you’re limited to fewer than 400 pages, sacrifices must be made!)
One of the most common questions I’m asked by readers is whether or not I would open my box. In all honesty, I kept changing my mind while writing, depending upon which character was in my head each day. Debating this difficult decision through the voice of each different character allowed me to examine the question from so many angles, even if it also contributed to my own flip-flopping when it comes to my answer!
Ultimately, I loved writing a story that shifts between multiple points of view. For me, reading and writing are two of the greatest adventures in empathy. As readers and as authors, we’re invited to step inside the perspective of someone different from ourselves. As the story progresses, we come to understand them, to laugh with them, to cry with them. We exercise our empathy muscles with every page we turn. And my great hope is that, when we finish a book, we return to our “real” lives with the same sense of open-mindedness and curiosity and compassion for those around us, whatever their story may be.
