FOR writer Arnold Zable, immersing himself into the world of his literary subjects is usually the easy part of his work. Indeed, the award-winning author, educator and human rights advocate relishes nothing more than setting the scene for his reader in a richly evocative manner.
Yet when it came to writing his latest book, The Fighter: A True Story – which he describes as “creative non-fiction but written like a novel” based on the life of legendary former champion boxer Henry Nissen – Zable concedes he came precariously close to abandoning the work several times.
“I didn’t want it to be an ordinary account – a biopic, which is the equivalent in the film world. I wanted it to be something that had depth, and there were times when I thought ‘I’m not quite reaching that,’” he reveals candidly.
“But what saved it was that whenever I showed what I was writing to the Nissen siblings, they came back and basically said, ‘That’s the way it was,’ and they also gave me the licence to enter the darker spaces. So I thought ‘Okay, I’ll keep pursuing it.’”
Full story in the Australian Jewish News