My Sunshine Away, published this month, is the work of Baton Rouge-born-and-raised, award-winning author M.O. Walsh.
The novel depicts a Louisiana setting so completely that it not only serves as a character in the story but impacts the relationships between the other characters. Walsh mines his childhood in Baton Rouge to tell more than a boy’s coming-of-age story—it’s one of a neighborhood and city as well.
225: What was your original inspiration for My Sunshine Away?
Walsh: Whenever I think back about my neighborhood and the friends I had then, the way we used to play in the yard, how safe I felt, it’s always with great affection. The older I got, though, I couldn’t help but recall a story I’d overheard my mother tell when I was young, about a girl who lived not too far from us being raped. I was too young to know what this meant then, but as I got older I became interested, like many people do, I think, between what was real and what we remember as being real. So, I had to come to terms with the fact that a place that seemed like a dream to me could have, in fact, been a total nightmare to someone else living right down my street. The plot grew out of that.
