Award-winning author Anna Rosner’s captivating new middle-grade novel, Last Year with Maddy, is about two close friends who have a falling out. It’s also partially inspired by the Toronto-based author’s own life.

“A lot of Last Year with Maddy is autobiographical, but the truth is in fragments, and some of these fragments occurred when I was older than the protagonist,” says Rosner. 

“The novel is like a jigsaw puzzle, with each piece being a part of my life, fitting in here or there, until the (semi-fictional) story comes to life.”

One of these fragments connects to Rosner’s best friend, Sarah, who took her own life at 37. 

“I’ve wanted to write a book about her for a long time, but it took me more than a decade to figure out how to begin,” Rosner explains. 

“When I started to imagine the plot and characters, I thought about what aspects of Sarah’s personality I loved most. Maddy has Sarah’s innate understanding of people’s emotional needs. Aviva, the protagonist, has Sarah’s dry wit and courage.”

Aviva is the narrator, and her wit pulls readers into the magnetic world of the novel. In some ways, Aviva is a reincarnation of Rosner’s friend Sarah.

“Aviva’s voice is very much like my friend Sarah’s,” says Rosner. “Sarah was wickedly funny. When I was writing, I often found myself thinking, ‘What would Sarah have said or done here?’ ” 

Aviva is writing a book to process her conflict with Maddy – Last Year with Maddy is the result. 

“Both girls become consumed by their own problems when they need each other the most,” says Rosner. Maddy is preoccupied by her parents’ separation, as well as a high-pressure music competition. Aviva is processing her brother Ethan’s new diagnoses of hearing loss and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). 

Rosner’s portrayal of Ethan draws upon her work with autistic children throughout her teen and university years. “I wanted to represent Ethan respectfully and realistically, so I modelled his behaviour on children with ASD whom I knew and loved,” she explains. 

To flesh out her research, she also interviewed the family members of children with ASD, as well as a pediatric speech-language pathologist. “All of these interviews helped me understand Ethan better,” she says, and they helped her give nuance to both Ethan’s character and the impact of his diagnoses on Aviva. 

For many authors, writing a character whose life experiences are very different from their own is likely to present a story’s biggest challenge. For Rosner, however, it was more about the emotional toll. 

“The most challenging part of writing Last Year with Maddy was revisiting the past and the mistakes I felt I’d made in the last year of my friend Sarah’s life. Like the protagonist, Aviva, I often said the ‘wrong thing’ and tried to fix things I couldn’t,” says Rosner. 

“But Aviva comes to understand that everyone says the wrong thing sometimes, especially in impossible situations, and you have to forgive yourself – though I do admit I still struggle with that myself.”