Debut author: Lottie Moggach

Exploring the effects of social media on relationships: novelist Lottie Moggach.

Lurking on Facebook, distracted by status updates and photos, Lottie Moggach was struck by how she could feel part of her friends' lives even when she hadn't seen some of them in months. This realisation formed the basis of her fast-paced debut novel, Kiss Me First (Picador ￡14.99), a thriller that cuts to the quick as it explores the seductive power and limitations of a life lived online.

Praised by everyone from The Bookseller to authors such as Liz Jensen and Harriet Lane, Kiss Me First describes how Leila, an awkward, computer-obsessed young woman, agrees to help a bipolar thirtysomething called Tess kill herself without detection by impersonating her online. Using her email addresses and Facebook account, Leila finds it frighteningly easy to keep Tess's friends and family in the dark, at first.

"I really wanted to engage with what's happening now, so I found it very interesting to write about what social media is doing to relationships," says Moggach. "A simulation of life on Facebook and Twitter is in some ways more appealing than reality, because you can control how you come across."

Does she think it would be possible to take over somebody's online identity without anybody noticing today? "It could be done. But in the long term it would all start to fall to pieces, which is what happens in the book. What Leila doesn't understand is that ultimately we do need to see the people we love, and life can't be entirely lived on the internet."

Writing while she was working as a freelance journalist – over several years, holed up in libraries and cafes across London – she crafted the voice of her protagonist with care. "I wanted to focus on somebody who is not particularly sexy or interesting at first glance and wouldn't normally narrate a book."

Moggach grew up in north London; her mother is Deborah Moggach, bestselling author of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. "She made writing seem like a really appealing lifestyle – partly because she is a happy and jolly person and very successful at it; partly because I never saw her work. She did that when we were at school."

Though she has started the follow-up to Kiss Me First, Moggach is enjoying the attention her debut is receiving. "For so many years it looked as if this book wouldn't be published at all, so it's a wonderful thing."

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