Published: November 03, 2009 11:20 pm      

Siblings writers rework Faust

EDMOND — Dina Nayeri Viergutz said she hadn’t given much thought about collaborating with her brother Daniel Nayeri professionally until the former Edmond residents discussed the idea of writing a novel together.

Their new young adult book “Another Faust” has been released and the siblings are embarking on a book tour which runs through Nov. 20. The writers will be in the Oklahoma City area Wednesday and Thursday and will have a reading at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Barnes and Noble Bookstore at Quail Springs Mall.

Viergutz, who now lives in Amsterdam, is a 1997 graduate of Edmond North High School. Her brother graduated from Edmond Memorial High School in 2000.

“I had never really considered working with Daniel before until the idea of the book started to gel through phone conversations,” Viergutz said in an e-mail interview. “This was about five years ago. Daniel and I often talked about our projects and ideas that we were thinking about. So naturally, when this idea came up, we discussed it.”

Viergutz said those conversations led to them taking the writing leap together.

“We both became very enthused by the possibility early on, because we both love writing, and we thought it would be fun to tell the story together,” she said. “At first, Daniel came to Boston (where I was living) for a couple of weeks just to brainstorm the idea and outline it. Once we had an outline though, we were both committed and we just started writing.”

Nayeri is a writer and editor who lives in New York City. He said it took about a year for him and his sister to complete the book’s first draft.

“I was working on a screenplay at the time, and Dina was in business school, so we didn’t have much to talk about over the holidays except for these fantastical stories that we were each making up,” Nayeri said. “Dina was telling me about one in particular, which resonated quite a lot with one of my favorite classics, Faust. So it started with us finding a common ground, and I think we were both so excited by the possibilities, that we jumped into it.”

Nayeri said writing a novel with his sister was a unique experience that didn’t always go smoothly.

“At first it was like a good action movie: explosive, bloody and full of standalone one-liners,” Nayeri said. “Then we found a way to smooth out the writing. But there was a point at which it could have gone either way: the book you see in stores today, or two counts of felony assault and a few hundred hours of community service. It’s the only project I’ve ever worked on where I can honestly say, Thank goodness we avoided prison.”

Viergutz concurred.

“It was fun and educational and incredibly difficult,” Viergutz said. “Working with another person (especially on creative work) is extremely hard. We would get into a lot of arguments over tiny creative details that were important to one of us. And so the work would take ages. But then, we started to find a process, and we began to realize that we have to let go of some ideas in order to push others forward. We learned to compromise, I guess. And we each learned how to work with the other one’s personality.”



A dark, layered story

“Another Faust” is a modern-day retelling of the Faustian Bargain, set in a New York City prep school.

“It’s a dark story, with many layers, and is ultimately a good versus evil story,” Viergutz said. “In the book, five teenagers bargain with their souls in order to attain their deepest desires. But soon they realize the true price of their dreams, as they live out a hellish existence with their beautiful and wicked governess (who happens to be the devil).”

Viergutz graduated from Princeton University where she first discovered her passion for fiction. Before taking up writing, she spent five years in the business world and then received her MBA from Harvard Business School. During this time, she was a teaching fellow in economics at Harvard and a speaker on topics in business and marketing. Finally, she received a Master of Education from Harvard School of Education.

Viergutz said “Another Faust” is the first of a series of books she is writing with her brother. They have completed a second novel called “Another Pan” which is a retelling of the Peter Pan classic.

She said working with her brother helped turn a single writing idea into a book series.

“At first, it (“Another Faust”) was just a very vague sketch in my mind about five teens who want something desperately and who live with their “witch” governess,” Viergutz said. “But when I discussed the idea with Daniel, he brought the Faust element to it. After that, it was a quick move to a series, because if we are going to retell Faust, we want to retell all the great classics! That part grabbed my imagination early on. Now the series has a purpose that we really believe in, and it’s an opportunity to revisit all the beloved books of our past.”

Nayeri said they are currently conceptualizing the third book in the series, which might be a retelling of Jekyll and Hyde.

“After that, who knows,” Nayeri said. “I’m certainly open to more work together.”

Both Nayeri and his sister have spent time living in and around Europe. He said their experiences living abroad played a part in developing “Another Faust.”

“It always helps to know the places you’re writing about, certainly,” he said. “Each of the five characters in “Another Faust” is from a different European city. You only see trace amounts of their back stories, but we wanted to make sure they were genuine.”

Viergutz said they based some of the book’s main characters on their own life and imaginations.

“We used ourselves and many ambitious people we’ve known over the years as models, and then let our imagination take it from there,” she said.

Viergutz said one of her goals of the book series is to help get teenagers interested in reading classic literature.

“The most important thing about it is the fact that it can potentially get teens to read important works of classic literature,” Viergutz said. “I think with all the literary references and hidden historical puzzles in the book, smart teens will become curious and want to read the original works.”

Nayeri said he and his sister are looking forward to returning to Oklahoma.

“I haven’t had the chance to visit Oklahoma in way too long,” Nayeri said. “The first thing I did when I moved to New York was write a novel that was pretty much a love letter to the Oklahoma sky. Our schedule is packed, but heaven help me, I will be stuffing my face with the cheese dip at Chelino’s, which back in my day was a Braum’s (another place I’ll be hitting up).”



FOR MORE information on Dina Nayeri Viergutz and Daniel Nayeri, visit www.anotherfaust.com