The Julie/Julia thing threw me at first, was Julie not real or was she some kind of con that fooled Sarah by pretending to be Julie/a? But Julie mentioned that her father had 2 families so it is possible Julie is the abandoned French daughter and Julia is his English daughter.
I am the God of Hellfire and I bring you....
It doesn't work at all if you take it literally.
It's in the mind of a writer. The characters and story she creates is her creative process. Of course it was not real.
It doesn't work if you take it literally because the Julie story simply isn't believable. It's a classic suspense/detective story, totally a different style from the outer story.
Edward
Okay first off IF French Julie was just some con then how would all the towns people know her since she was a child? Second if everything was just Sara's book at the house then why would she say to John at the end that he hid things from her and to give the autographed book to his daughter. If John gives the book to English Julie/ Julia wouldn't the daughter be confused considering she doesn't even know Sara? And lastly could he of had two daughters? I don't think it would be that simplistic. I still am not sure what the answer could be becaus honestly nothing fits entirely. Unless Sara is going crazy and is imagining everything and truly believes their was a Julie in France. I'm not sure but it was a mind bender that was for sure.
shareA daughter is confused because she gets a signed copy of a new book from her publisher dad's number one author.
Just think about that.