Chris Bohjalian
Variety reports that we have a couple of very different TV adaptations to anticipate from Craig Anderson Productions: Chris Bohjalian’s Secrets of Eden and Donna VanLiere’s The Christmas Secret. (So far, only the rights for these books have been purchased; there’s no network attached to the projects, or air dates.) Secrets of Eden is a “mystery that does not at first appear to be a mystery.” The Christmas Secret is an inspirational tale—classic VanLiere—about a single mom “with a jerk of an ex-husband.”
Luckily, in our archives we have an interview with Bohjalian and a behind-the-book essay from VanLiere about these very books.
Donna VanLiere
Bohjalian told BookPage contributor Alden Mudge that he’s “interested in seeing what happens to ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.” That doesn’t sound unrelated to what attracted Anderson to the novel: “I’m fascinated by people who have lives we think [are] normal, but there are actually sort of demons in their closets,” he said.
The Christmas Secret is Anderson’s fourth deal with VanLiere, who told us she “never imagined” she’d write about Christmas or get TV deals back when she brainstormed her first book idea “on a hot, sweaty day in July.”
What do you think, readers? Can TV adaptations do justice to a book?
