When You’re Getting an Unexpected Setting

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St. John in the Virgin Islands. (Credit: Visit USVI.)

A number of authors set their novels in the same place. So, it becomes quite noticeable when they set their novels in…a different place.

This surprise can be welcome or not, depending on the reader and how good the books are. But a change-of-pace is often a good thing, for both the writers and their fans wanting to avoid a “rut.” The authors might have to do a little more research, but they’ll survive. 🙂

I most recently enjoyed a setting switch in the work of Elin Hilderbrand. She is known for placing her novels on Nantucket, and I have loved the ones I’ve read featuring that Massachusetts island milieu. Then I picked up Hilderbrand’s Winter in Paradise, thinking I was returning to Nantucket — only to find that the novel was mostly set on St. John in the Virgin Islands. That was initially a bit disorienting, but Winter in Paradise turned out to be another compulsively readable Hilderbrand book…this time about how a family’s life changes when they learn the father had a secret second family. Then I quickly finished the second and third installments of the trilogy: What Happens in Paradise and Troubles in Paradise — the latter book ending with a dramatic and destructive hurricane. I’m sure it helped the Nantucket-based Hilderbrand in writing the trilogy that she visits St. John for several weeks each year as a warm-weather writing retreat and vacation spot.

Among the other authors who’ve produced the occasional geographic surprise is Sir Walter Scott, who placed most of his historical novels in Scotland but situated Quentin Durward in France. Still, the archer Quentin is Scottish, so Sir Walter didn’t stray completely from his own real-life roots.

Charles Dickens usually used London as the locale for his novels, but did set part of A Tale of Two Cities in Paris and part of Martin Chuzzlewit in the United States.

Given that travel was much more difficult and time-consuming during the pre-1900 era in which writers such as Scott and Dickens lived, it’s not surprising that many long-ago authors kept their novels pretty close to the locales they knew most in a firsthand way. But Dickens did take two extended trips to the U.S., and Scott visited France (though after Quentin Durward was published). Also, Scott’s wife Charlotte was of French descent.

Another 19th-century author, Mark Twain, was among the most globetrotting Americans of his time — which bore fruit in such novels as A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (England) and Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (France), and in his hilarious nonfiction travel masterpiece The Innocents Abroad (in which Twain chronicled his visits to many places, including the Mideast).

In post-1900 literature, William Faulkner virtually always set his novels in Mississippi, but three of his books unfolded elsewhere: including France in A Fable.

Barbara Kingsolver also placed the vast majority of her novels in the U.S. (usually Appalachia, the South, or the Southwest), but sent her American characters to Africa in The Poisonwood Bible and situated a large portion of The Lacuna in Mexico.

Your thoughts about, and example of, this theme?

Misty the cat says: “Orange skies don’t appear like clockwork; what was Anthony Burgess thinking?”

My comedic 2024 book — the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed — is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Misty says Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for my book features a talking cat: 🙂

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece — about a possible end to free holiday parking and a local U.S. congresswoman’s entry into New Jersey’s governor race — is here.

106 thoughts on “When You’re Getting an Unexpected Setting”

  2. I read a lot of SF/F growing up, so I take novels in different settings for granted, but I have to admit one of the reasons “Death in Paradise” is one of my favorite crime shows is the setting. I would love to live in that shack, write novels and drink tea on the porch, and hang out at Catherine’s bar.

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    • Thank you, Benny! Yes, among the great attractions of science fiction are the great, diverse settings — often mostly conjured from the author’s imagination (as they might extrapolate from settings they know). And it’s wonderful when we realize we’d like to live in a fictional setting.

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  3. Terrific content! I instantly thought of Henning Mankell, where Scania was the primary setting, but Latvia, Berlin, Rome, and South Africa were all visited by the narrative.

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      • While it is true his novels may occasionally add new locations, by far the majority of time is spent in Swedish locals. For an American reader, one gains a great appreciation for Sweden, particularly as a setting for murder and intrigue. But as we get to experience a few other locations, we see those through the eyes of a visitor outside of his natural comfort zone.

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  5. Dave,

    I read this yesterday.

    Took me all this time to think. Of something.

    Cork Ireland! Joy’s book – Now You See Her is set in Cork.

    Most of her stories take place in American cities, Florida or Toronto.

    This one was a locations departure.

    Pretty good book! I remember when it came out, she gave me a copy at one of her dinners. I turned anti-social and started reading in the corner of the couch.

    It’s very difficult to hold a Fielding book and not read. Anyway, she came over, took it out of my hands, signed it and gave it back! LOL…I read to the end of the next chapter, then rejoined the living!

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  6. You come up with neat topics to gaze across books and think of similarities 🙂 While reading this post, I thought of Stephen King. Many years ago, I used to read a lot of him — before branching out to other authors. He placed many stories in his beloved New England, especially Maine. But he’s written loads of books, and has stretched beyond Maine for settings. Such as “The Shining” in Colorado, and “The Stand” all across America.

    P.S. That’s a delightful video of Misty walking ahead of you on the sidewalk!

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  8. Hi Dave, this question of settings is interesting. I have set stories in many places and haven’t visited most of them or not in the context of the story I’ve written. It has required massive research to get the setting correct for me. I believe that my settings must be correct and have the ring of truth about them. Not easy to achieve when you haven’t been somewhere. I am now writing about South Africa and that is much easier.

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  9. To mention a few: Gerald Durrell’s books, mainly set on Corfu, include also books based on his travels searching for his collection of wild animals. Then I have to add an odd one Bram Stoker whose books are set mainly in England, Ireland, and Scotland yet he also wrote The Shoulder of Shasta set in the American West having traveled there on a tour with Henry Irving. Stephen King’s books, The Shining set in Colorado as was Misery, though most are set in Maine where he lives. Btw, a Happy Thanksgive to you and yours. Susi

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  10. I like learning about places as well as characters and situations while I read, so I don’t mind if an author changes it up a bit. I don’t have a good example for you, but the post and the comments covered some very good ground.

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  11. Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons should stay in the Lakes and fells. Didn’t get the East Anglia books at all, but this could be my prejudice against flat country.

    Cheating, maybe, but as the past is a foreign country, whether in Germany or the UK , Daniel Deronda’s in a totally different setting from Middlemarch, let alone Adam Bede.

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    • Thank you, Esther! Great angle on this discussion! You’re right that setting a novel in another time period can be a real change-of-pace — and take an author and readers out of a certain comfort zone.

      Your mention of George Eliot’s work reminded me that as much as I love “Middlemarch,” “Adam Bede,” “Silas Marner,” and “The Mill on the Floss,” my favorite novel of hers in some ways is “Daniel Deronda.”

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    • Thank you, Lee! That was plenty of contribution. 🙂 The three St. John novels are really good. A bit confusing for the first dozen or so pages of the first book (as Elin Hilderbrand introduces different characters in different places), but after that the trilogy is a complete page-turner!

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  14. From Kim Hays: I’m not coming up with good book examples, Dave, but I wanted to tell you that I’ve never read anything by Elin H., but now that I hear she has a trilogy set on St John’s, I will. When I was a child in Puerto Rico, my family used to stay there for two weeks every spring. We loved it! I have very happy memories of camping there.

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    • Thank you, Kim! Great that you have a personal St. John connection! I’ve never been there myself, but Elin Hilderbrand seems to know that island really well.

      I first tried Hilderbrand’s fiction only a few months ago, and am hooked. Her novels are page-turners, and deeper than I expected. (She is rather falsely labeled as an author of mere “beach reads.”) Nice to know there are still about 20 of her books I can eventually read. 🙂

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  16. An interesting observation regarding authors and unexpected settings. I’ve always been open-minded when it comes to storytelling. The greater the diversity of settings, the better the reading experience and exposure to different ways of thinking and being in the world.

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  17. I’m currently reading “Lady Tan’s Circle of Women” set in 1469 Ming Dynasty. I normally do not read books about China but am already learning during this time feet bonding was fashionable but could be deadly .

    Michele E & P way back

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  18. Oh, a very interesting post, Dave!! The first writer that came to mind was Agatha Christie, whose globetrotting and adventurous life gave us many locations. I have followed her stories from the landscapes, the villages (think St. Mary Mead) and stately homes of England to the distance places of Egypt and the Canary Islands, to the luxurious Orient Express train. I find that following authors from location to location enriches my reading experience. I believe that many people take the next step and travel to these locations simple because they read a book.

    I had to leave you one of my favourite Agatha Christie quote!

    “An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets, the more interested he is in her.” Agatha Christie

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  19. Many mystery series are based on a specific setting where the main character(s) solve many of their cases. Sometimes they stray to other locations when on vacation, etc. From reading comments, I’d say the readers are quite split on their feelings about this. Many prefer it when the protagonist stays closer to “home.” I feel much this way about the Louise Penny Three Pines series. I love the familiar, cozy atmosphere when they stay closer to home:)

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  20. Franky speaking, Dave, I love when writers show me different places on this planet! In this sense Doris Lessing, who was born in nowadays Iran, came to my mind and above all “The Grass is Singing”, which is a story about a farmer couple in Rhodesia, where the husband has now idea about his job. She, for example also wrote “Briefing for a Descent into Hell. This is a disturbing novel about madness and release, set in London or “Shikasta”. The novel shows the earth’s prehistory and how things became worse in the century of distruction (the 20th-century) and the Apocalypse (world war III)
    Thank you very much Dave, for this special thought!

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  21. Hi Dave, and thank for yet another brain-teaser. The only concrete example I can think of right now is when Rudyard Kipling, who usually set his stories in India, wrote one entitled ‘Quiquern’ set in the frozen north an set among the Inuit (I think). He also wrote some short stories set in England, like the disturbing ‘Mary Postgate’ – but he was primarily known for works set in India. Robert Louis Stephenson also wrote works based in the South Sea islands, after he moved there, although some of his earlier works were set in Scotland before he took to the high seas with ‘Treasure Island.’ If I think of any more I’ll be back. 🙂

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  22. When a setting is more than background and contributes to the reading experience, it can be disconcerting if the author switches settings. Unless they can create the same effect in the new setting. Which is pretty much what you said in the post. I cant think of any examples right now, unfortunately. Too early. 😃

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    • Thank you, Madeline! Great that you read that excellent Elin Hilderbrand trilogy! Yes, one thinks of Philadelphia when one thinks of Lisa Scottoline. I’ve read just one of her novels — “The Vendetta Defense” — and liked it a lot. I heard her speak at a conference I attended back in 2007 (she was quite funny and interesting), and the conference was in…Philadelphia. 🙂

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    • Thank you, Ada! I totally hear you — readers definitely make setting assumptions with some writers; Dickens is VERY associated with London. I read “A Tale of Two Cities” so long ago I can’t remember how much of it took place in London and how much in Paris, but the French Revolution was certainly a major element.

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