Crystal-clear, emerald waters surround La Maddalena, a small Sardinian island off Italy’s northeastern coast—and for two decades during the Cold War, it was also home to a community of American Navy families. Richmond-based and best-selling author Rachel Beanland spent part of her childhood there, after her father’s military work moved the family to the island. Decades later, that memory became the seed of her latest novel, The Half Life (coming out on July 14), which transports readers to La Maddalena in the 1970s, when American submarines quietly shared the harbor with Sardinian fishing boats.
At the center of it all is Eileen O’Malley, a 23-year-old bride who follows her naval officer husband to the remote island and must learn, fast, how to be the perfect Navy wife—all while navigating the tangled politics of the local Sardinian community and a marriage that isn’t quite what she signed up for. It’s part coming-of-age story, part fish-out-of-water tale, and, as Beanland puts it, an unlikely love story that’s also about nuclear submarines and radiation risk. Eileen marches to the beat of her own drum, and the cast of characters she meets along the way practically jump off the page.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Rachel on a hot Richmond day over iced lattes, chatting about everything from the real La Maddalena to our shared passion for reading and writing.
Don’t miss the opportunity to listen to Beanland speak about her work at these events:
July 14: VCU Cabell Library with Fountain Bookstore | Richmond
July 24: The Bookshelf on Church | Kilmarnock
Aug. 28: New Dominion Bookshop | Charlottesville
Sept. 10: Book People | Henrico
Sept. 24: Downtown Books | Lexington
Sept. 26: James River Writers Conference | Richmond
Gabriela de Camargo Gonçalves: Okay, so I loved this. I really did. I devoured it in one weekend. And I know you said you wanted it to feel jarring to stop reading, and it was.
Rachel Beanland: I’m really glad. It’s a funny combination, right? Because it’s a love story, but it’s also about nuclear submarines and about radiation and environmental risk and all kinds of topics that don’t necessarily pair up with a love story.
G.C.G.: I’m such a nerd for historical fiction, and you do that very well with your other two books, The House is On Fire and Florence Adler Swims Forever. What makes you drawn to historical fiction?
R.B.: What I always tell people is that I don’t think I’m necessarily drawn to this sort of fiction. I like reading it, but I would say that I read more widely in literary fiction.
When I think about writing a book, I think about the story, the characters, and the setting. Certain stories demand to be set in the past, obviously.
The House Is on Fire had to be set in 1811 if I was going to write about that event, right? And I was really fascinated by it. With my first book, Florence Adler Swims Forever, which was set in the 1930s, what I wanted to write about was a death that had occurred in my family.
With this book, I was in La Maddalena. I had gone in 2019 with my family, and it was the first time I’d been back in 31 years. Here I was looking at it through an adult lens, whereas I had been a 7-year-old when I moved away.
And I was thinking, first of all, this is a fabulous place. And second of all, I couldn’t really see the evidence that the Americans had been there. It was weird. I could see it in certain places, but not all. I began to understand that I had this window into a world that had existed, but that people your age or younger would have no understanding of. So I wanted to write about La Maddalena and specifically about this American community that was there. When I got home and started reading in much greater depth, trying to understand the place and what we were doing there, I realized that the 1970s were the most interesting time period.
G.G.: I want to go to that island now.
R.B.: It’s beautiful. Beautiful!
Go to Rome. Go to Florence. Do that stuff.
But then go over to Sardinia and get yourself a nice beach vacation. It’s just amazing.
G.G.: I want to be there [pointing to the book cover].
R.B.: That really is La Maddalena. It’s funny, actually. When they sent the cover to me, I was like, “Oh yeah, this is great.” I love the colors. And I said something like, “Did you clip-art this? Did you Photoshop this piece and this piece together?” And they were like, “No, Rachel. That’s really how the picture looks.”
G.G.: So, what would you want readers to get out of this?
R.B.: I always struggle with that question because I feel like once the book is out of my hands and it’s in yours, it’s your book. You are going to bring every experience you’ve ever had in life into reading this book, and that’s going to affect what you get out of it.
I almost feel like it would be really bold of me to say, “Well, here’s the thing that I hope you get out of it.” Because I really just want you to be transported. I want it to give you all the feelings. I want you to finish and pass the book on to a friend.
And I would love it if, five years from now, you can still recall a detail. It’s so hard to even remember what we’ve read. So I feel like if years from now you still remember this book, or it becomes one of those books that you come back to, I would feel like I won the lottery.
This article is a Virginia Living digital exclusive.
