Kobe Bryant based book character on daughter, co-author says
'Epoca: The River of Sand' is available now
In an exclusive interview on Instagram, it was revealed that Kobe Bryant based a book character on his daughter.
Read More: Vanessa Bryant speaks on Kobe, Gianna for TIME’s 2020 Person of the Year In Memoriam
Epoca, from Bryant and author Ivy Claire, is already a New York Times bestselling book series. As a second installment, Epoca: The River of Sand, was published this year, Granity Studios, the late NBA star’s multimedia original content company, aired an interview with Vanessa Bryant and Claire to discuss the series and Claire’s writing process with Kobe.
In the interview, Claire refers to working with Kobe as “a profound collaboration,” and when asked who her favorite character was, Claire explained, “I love Vera, who is not the main character or the secondary character, she’s just this amazing athlete.”
She continues, “She just embodies pure athletic drive, but she’s also the kindest and the most reasonable and the person who doesn’t have to be told to be a good friend. It just comes naturally to her.”
While discussing Vera, Bryant chimed in and said, “Vera reminded me a lot of Gigi.”
Claire confirmed that Vera reminded her of her daughter for a reason. She added, “I don’t think that’s in any way a coincidence. We rewrote it for her to look like your daughters. That was very important to Kobe…”
Read More: Vanessa Bryant reacts to Lakers win: ‘Wish Kobe and Gianna were here to see’
Claire ended the conversation with a lovely testament to Bryant, explaining, “…He is alive in every word on the page. That’s him. I might have written those words, but he breathed his inspiration into each and every one of them.”
She finished the interview saying that working on the book series was “one of the greatest pleasures” of her life.
Both Epoca: The Tree of Ecrof and the sequel, Epoca: The River of Sand are available where books are sold.
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