Lara Vap­n­yar moved from Moscow to Brook­lyn in 1994. Know­ing very lit­tle Eng­lish, she quick­ly picked up the lan­guage and soon began writ­ing in it. Her most recent nov­el, The Scent of Pine (Simon & Schus­ter), is now avail­able. She will be blog­ging here all week for Jew­ish Book Coun­cil and MyJew­ish­Learn­ing.

I look for loca­tions for my sto­ries on Cyber­Rentals and Home­Away. I find the hous­es described on these web­sites far more inter­est­ing than any­thing that my imag­i­na­tion can supply.

For my lat­est nov­el, The Scent of Pine, I need­ed a cab­in in Maine, where my two main char­ac­ters would have a tor­rid, three-day-long affair. I want­ed it to be small, deep in the woods, prefer­ably close to the lake. So I typed in: ​“Maine” ​“Aca­dia region” ​“Water­front” ​“Sleeps two peo­ple.” The search returned sev­er­al hous­es and I picked the per­fect one. It was a tiny cab­in — just one room. On a lake. Far away from every­thing. With no elec­tric­i­ty or run­ning water. No inter­net. No show­er. No heat. I spent months read­ing the descrip­tion of the house, star­ing at the pho­tos pro­vid­ed by the own­er, imag­in­ing my char­ac­ter occu­py­ing that space.

If I were to cre­ate a cab­in from my imag­i­na­tion, I would’ve nev­er thought of one with­out a show­er or toi­let. But this detail made the sit­u­a­tion all the more inti­mate and roman­tic. My char­ac­ters have to run out and plunge into the cold lake instead of banal show­er­ing. They warm them­selves by the lit­tle wood­stove. They cook their food at a camp­fire. The camp­fire inspires them to share stir­ring and bizarre sto­ries from their past. The absence of phone con­nec­tion allows them to feel free. The absence of inter­net makes them tru­ly con­cen­trate on each oth­er. The strange­ness and inti­ma­cy of the entire set­ting makes them fall in love.

I owe half of my plot to that house.

I think I’ll vis­it it one day.

Lara Vap­n­yar is the author of two sto­ry col­lec­tions, There are Jews in My House and Broc­coli and Oth­er Tales of Food and Love, and two nov­els, Mem­oirs of a Muse and The Scent of Pine. She lives in New York City with her family.