Irene Sabatini

• 8 September 2010 - The Swedish translation is now out!

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• 3 September 2010 - Reading Chapter Two of The Boy Next Door

Here's a snippet of me reading Chapter Two at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

• 2 September 2010 - And here is the Norwegian translation! Loving it! Out on 20 September.

• 29 August 2010 - An Evening at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

I had a great evening at the Writers' Retreat in Edinburgh on Saturday with Kachi, discussing our books.

• 6 August 2010 - A Blogger's Review

I really enjoyed a review from a blogger especially this bit about Ian..."Sabatini does a fantastic job exploring race issues (between Lindiwie and Ian, but also with others), personal issues, and political issues, and as a bonus is also great at not making me want to slam Ian's hand in a car door even when he does som...e really crappy and selfish things."

• 17 July 2010 - An Evening at my Alma Mater

I had a wonderful evening on Wednesday at my Alma Mater, The Institute of Education, where I gave a reading, followed by some pretty insightful questions which had me thinking about the magical nature of writing and reading. When I was writing, one person asked, was it a visual experience, actually 'seeing' the charact...ers in my head, because, she said, they were so vividly drawn that she 'saw' them (music to my ears). My answer was that I 'heard' them, but, then again, I did 'see' Lindiwe on that verandah, on that hot day in Bulawayo, with her Sue Barton...

• 28 June 2010 - A review in The Independent!

"one of the most engaging novels about inter-racial love to be published this century"

• 19 June 2010 - Edinburgh, Saturday 28 August at 19.30

The programme of the 2010 Edinburgh International Book Festival has been announced. I will be in conversation with Kachi A. Ozumba whose 'The Shadow of a Smile' I found very moving- it is also laced with a wonderful humour. We will be discussing our books on Saturday 28 August at 19.30 (page 64 on the programme).

• 17 June 2010 - A visit to my UK publisher's office

Last week I went to my publisher's office www.hodder.co.uk > Sceptre in London and for those of you who've watched Manhattan Murder Mystery it felt pretty much like that scene when Anjelica Huston (writer) goes to visit her editor (Woody Allen). Manuscripts, and books, books, everywhere! And people who are passionate about them, and there I was,... amongst them! It was one of those truly surreal moments.

• 14 June 2010 - Orange Award Ceremony

It was a glamorous evening! YouTube - WorldTelevisionGroup's Channel

• 12 June 2010 - Orange Award announcement video

Here is a video clip of the award announcement!

• 11 June 2010 - Oprah's Book Club

The Boy Next Door is featured in Oprah's Book Club! The Orange Prize Books Reading List - Oprah.com

• 10 June 2010 - Chatting with Barbara Kingsolver and HRH the Duchess of Cornwall

I'm exhausted BUT very, very happy!!! Last night I had little chats with Barbara Kingsolver and HRH the Duchess of Cornwall!! I laughed a lot with Attica Locke (Black Water Rising) and looked over in awe at Hilary Mantel and Lorrie Moore. And so many people came to me and told me how passionately they felt... about The Boy Next Door- Heaven!!

• 10 June 2010 - Thank you to my early readers

I just wanted to say a big thank you to all of the early readers of The Boy Next Door for giving me such lovely feedback and for keeping my spirits up when it felt like the book would become lost.

• 7 June 2010 - Reading at the Southbank for the Orange Award for New Writers

The reading at the Southbank for the Orange Award for New Writers went really well! Read the second chapter and Lindiwe and Ian came alive. It was great to meet so many people and talking about The Boy Next Door.

• 17 May 2010 - Sometimes a review can be pretty special

"Irene Sabatini treads a minefield in her novel-it is pretty difficult to have a calm conversation about Zimbabwe with anyone who cares about it-but what she produces is a book full of understanding, insight and powerful beauty."
Alexander Lucie-Smith in The Tablet.

• 13 May 2010 - Swedish Edition

...and here is the Swedish hardback, coming out on September 1st! The jacket illustration was specially commissioned. To all those who will be in Gothenburg on the 25th, another reminder that I will be at the book fair. More details soon: (just a hint ) I will be in conversation with another writer...

• 6 May 2010 - Audio Books

I received the audio recordings of The Boy Next Door last week and I'm still absorbing the shock of 'hearing' a Lindiwe that wasn't just the one in my head!! It's amazing for me to think of, for example, the people I spoke to at the Salon du Livre on Saturday, imagining what they're hearing as they read the book...

• 29 April 2010 - Panel discussion and Book Signing at the Geneva International Book Fair

On Saturday May 1, I will be guest of the Geneva-based Off-the-Shelf bookshop, taking part in a discussion about 'Book Covers' during the 23rd Salon international du livre et de la presse Genève. I will also sign copies of the new Orange Award For New Writers shotlist edition of 'The Boy Next Door'.

• 22 March 2010 - Edinburgh International Book Festival

I've been invited to the Edinburgh International Book Festival, which takes place in the second half of August. As soon as I find out which event I'll be taking part in I'll let you know!

• 26 March 2010 - De Jongen Van Hiernaast

I just received a copy of "DE JONGEN VAN HIERNAAST" from my Dutch publisher, De Arbeiderpers, and it really is a thing of beauty! It looks and feels incredibly luxurious. I can only say a huge thank you to the Dutch team for putting ‘a Lindiwe’ on the cover I’m very, very proud of! I can’t wait to see what the Swe...des, the Norwegians, the Italians and the Brazilians have up their sleeves. It’s going to be fun discussing book covers at the Geneva Book Fair!

• 26 January 2010 - New African Woman!

The Boy Next Door is featured in Issue Number 4 of New African Woman. Also there is Black Mamba Boy by Nadifa Mohamed, a book I've just finished reading which I found profoundly moving. My thanks to Belinda Otas who asked me some pretty insightful questions. You can get a copy of the magazine from newsagents in the United Kingdom and Europe or by subscribing online.

• 13 December 2009 - Book Reading with Geneva Writers' Group.

There is something magical when you do a reading and you feel people connecting and responding to the characters and the story by nodding, chuckling, laughing, and gasping...it was incredible to sense Ian's character (with his very 'Ianesque' way of talking) coming alive and being taken in by the listeners as I read Chapter Two of The Boy Next Door.

Suddenly, in the room, a brash, boisterous seventeen year old had strode in with his broken car radio and from his first words to Lindiwe he seemed to have everybody's startled and amused attention. Lindiwe's voice too was undeniably present, strong in its intelligence and shyness; it really felt that these two very different teenagers were meeting for the very first time, their story beginning, and about to unfold in this Zimbabwe of the early eighties.

Fiction, I love it!

• 12 December 2009 - German Jacket !

It's clever, cool, and rather charming. Those of you who've read The Boy Next Door in english will know just who the art work brings beautifully into the frame.

• 6 December 2009 - UK Launch coming soon

I received the Sceptre 2010 catalogue last week and it was such a thrill to see The Boy Next Door right there as one of the books that will be published (4 February). There are some new books coming from Sceptre from literary luminaries such as Siri Hustevdt whose The Sorrows of an American was one of my favourite books last year and Andrei Makine, whose two books that I have just finished reading, Human Love and The Woman Who Waited left me stunned: the sense of having been exposed to profound emotional truths.

I'm often asked how hard it was to write this book and my answer is always that it was a gift of a book to write. The story was just there, everything happened organically: Lindiwe came as she was and she grew and evolved to be the woman she is, so too with Ian. They came to me with their strengths and foibles, as human beings, perfectly flawed. How that happened is a mystery to me and I can only be deeply grateful that these two individuals were there for the telling.

• 28 November 2009 - Book Group Antics!

I had a wonderfully lively evening with a book group that has just finished reading The Boy Next Door. Over wine and a fabulous dinner seven feisty ladies (two Americans, three Australians, a Swiss, a Swede) and I delved into Ian, Lindiwe and their unpredictable story in Zimbabwe. It was fascinating to me how the book touched all of them; to hear their own takes on the characters and how passionately they felt about them.

There seemed to be a strong emotional connection to Lindiwe in particular (everybody loved her!) which, as the author, I was deeply moved by. A couple of them really disliked Ian at the beginning of the book; he grew on them because of his own growth: they had to struggle against their own prejudices and conceptions about him (which seems to me to be a very real-life like thing to have to do). It felt, hearing the various opinions, that the story had achieved something substantial and remarkable; that knowledge took my breath away.

They were all curious to know if there were any autobiographical aspects and were rather shocked to hear that Ian is entirely a creature of the imagination! He is the biggest 'what if?' puzzle of the book. I talked about the process of writing the novel: the bits and pieces I borrowed from my childhood; how this borrowing metamorphosed into something else entirely which I guess must be one of the great joys and gifts of fiction writing...the way you can play, and make believe!

• 22 November 2009 - Dutch Jacket!

Only one word to describe the Dutch jacket for The Boy Next Door....FABULOUS!

• 24 September 2009 - Book Reading and Signing

I had a wonderful evening at Off the Shelf Bookshop in Geneva, this my very first reading and signing. I love this place with its wooden floors and bookcases; it is large enough to have a good variety of carefully selected books and small enough for the book-lover to feel right at home in.

I was very shocked and humbled by the number of people who came. It was a very emotional experience seeing people holding my book, for the very first time. Lindiwe and Ian are now public property! What will be made of them, of their story? I feel a bit like a mother hen.

The signing was awkward initially for me...my author signature, well, to quote someone in the bookshop, was just too plain, it needed flourish! By the end of the evening I do believe it had acquired some loops and twirls!

I read the first chapter with a thumping heart and here's the thing...as I read I kept thinking, they're listening to this story, my story, now theirs. Magic! The conversation we had afterwards was another emotional rite of passage...the questions that were asked about the characters and the story brought me right back to over two years ago when a phone conversation lit the spark for the story and the tingling excitement of my hands on the keyboard when I wrote those very first words.

• 17 September 2009 - New York Times

The Boy Next Door made it to the 'Newly Released' write up by Amy Virshup. I think that this line encapsulates the novel very well: 'Their shared status as outsiders brings them together in this novel about love, family and what it means to be African'. This is Lindiwe and Ian's story put in a (lovely) nutshell. Needless to say, I got some friends to deliver a hard copy!