Author of ‘My Teeth in Your Heart’, Joanna Nadin on Writing Dual Timelines

Every time I write a novel with more than one narrator or timeline –  the YA novel Eden; my adult novels The Talk of Pram Town and The Double Life of Daisy Hemmings –  I make myself promise never to do it again. Crafting one narrative arc is hard enough – piecing the scenes together to make a story breathless and compelling. Creating two (or, in the case of the above, three or even four) and then dovetailing them together is, some might say, a form of madness, like trying to do four jigsaws at once, but all on the same tray. And yet, there are some stories that cannot be told in anything less, either because the nuances of one timeline can only be revealed in a second, or because competing character viewpoints enrich the story and enlighten the reader in a way that a single narrator might not.  

When I was approached to write my latest YA novel, My Teeth in Your Heart, which deals with the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, I knew instantly that one non-negotiable would be that it would need to be dual timeline. Partly because, while the conflict lasted weeks, its after-effects are still reverberating today. And partly because I wanted readers who tend towards contemporary in their taste to have a ‘way in’ to a historical narrative. Thus, the novel follows two seventeen-year-old girls: Anna, who falls in love with a Greek-Cypriot boy in a bookshop in Varosha in 1974 and finds herself pregnant, and Billy, her granddaughter, who, upon Anna’s death in 2024, goes back to Cyprus to trace her real grandfather.

The timeline switches chapter to chapter between the two protagonists, as they both negotiate difficult mothers, problematic best friends, and falling in love at the worst possible time. As such, it was essential for me to find two very different ways of telling their stories, two unique voices that ring true for their background and, crucially, 1974 and 2024 in turn.  

Usually, finding a voice comes after several aborted attempts as I switch between past and present tense, and first person (I), third person (he/she/they) and sometimes even second person (you). Here, though, both voices came to me almost immediately, suiting, I felt, both their character and time. Anna, thus, is told in third-person past. Her story happened five decades ago; she is a more reserved character, slightly more distanced from her own emotions, tending to hold her cards close to her chest.

Billy’s story, on the other hand, is unfolding as the reader comes to the novel, and she’s very much an oversharer, happy to talk about ‘me, me, me’. Anna rarely uses contractions; Billy always does. Anna never swears; Billy uses expletives like commas. Anna’s sentences tend to be measured, lengthy; Billy’s speech is scattergun, staccato.  

The harder part was how to meld the narratives so that the novel as a whole retained pace, crucial turning points were met almost simultaneously, and impact in 1974 could be felt at its fullest in the now. Previously I have written timelines separately and then retrofitted chapters where I think they will work, hoping that, somehow, the markers will align. I do not recommend it – my anxiety was always high. This time, I had learned a lesson. I wrote chapter by chapter, relishing the switch between Anna and Billy, between historical periods, between place as well. I believe it worked, bringing together two unique young women whose voices and stories will keep readers compelled to turn the page.