Irene Sabatini

I blog about: The Boy Next Door - A Novel; my writing; books I love

Read more of my Blogs: Author Central on Amazon.com & Goodreads



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I read, as widely as possible.
Scroll down to see the books I like

Feel free to share with me some of your good reads this year, actually not just good: your mind-blowing reads!

I’m always on the look out to discover great books, my only real criteria (besides that they be beautifully written) is that they have an emotional gravitas.

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The Boy Next Door - A Novel

• 25 February 2011 - I have an author interview here

• 4 January 2011 - Larkin Centre Visiting Writers Series

I will be at the University of Hull on March 1, in conversation with Professor Martin Goodman, in an event to mark International Women's Day.

• 25 November 2010 - The Independent Best Books for Christmas - The Boy Next Door

I like (very much) what The Independent has to say about The Boy Next Door in their Best Books for Christmas round-up: 'The Boy Next Door (Sceptre, £14.99), Irene Sabatini's tough-minded, tenderly voiced love story from turbulent Zimbabwe.'

• 22 October 2010 - Fiction Uncovered

A new place to discover books!

• 8 October 2010 - Another Swedish review!

• 27 September 2010 - Gothenburg Book Fair

The Gothenburg Book Fair had a wonderful, carnival- like atmosphere and, in-between media interviews and seminars, I was able to meet readers! And, I got to hold, for the very first time, the Swedish hardback of the book (Pojken pa andra sidan) and what a beautiful thing it is- thank you to my fantastic Swedish publishers, Norstedts!

• 19 September 2010 - Mrs McKenzie's ghost presence

This review made me think of Mrs McKenzie's ghost presence throughout the book and the atmosphere it creates. It's great when a review makes you look at your novel in a fresh way!

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My Writing

• 29 October 2010 - A new Short Story

I've posted on my website a short story that I've had great fun writing!

• 8 December 2009 - Magic!

I was walking along a bridge this September when I stopped and looked over the railing. The usual swans were there gliding in their effortless way on the water, but interspersed among them were these grey birds with necks as long and curved as the swans; these creatures however seemed ungainly in the water, gawky, and not so pleasing to the eye. I looked and looked at them and then suddenly I smacked my forehead, of course, here they were, The Ugly Ducklings! Here they were before they became creatures of fabled beauty and elegance.

And then suddenly in the exact same spot where I was standing there was a boy, six or seven years old, standing with his father, looking out at the birds. I could feel their breath on me. I could feel the boy's excited quiver, his hand squeezing his father's, his feet on tip toes. I sat down on a bench and looking out at them I wrote a bit more of their story, the story of the book I'm working on now.

This is what I mean when I keep telling people about the magic of writing: all of a sudden your characters are real. They are people. They breathe. They walk with you. You see them. It happened with The Boy Next Door. Later, the boy and his father will walk all the way up to the old town, along its wonderful cobbled streets and they will find the longest bench in the world and they will sit there, together. I will wait for them...

• 11 November 2009 - Where the story ends, begins...

Another thing I kept getting asked by the children, during a school visit to show and tell about my experience as a real, live author of books for grown-ups, was: are you going to write a sequel, like in Harry Potter?

I hear the question and that exquisite moment of exhilaration, happiness and sadness when I wrote the last line, word, in The Boy Next Door comes rushing back to me. It was a good-bye (but not 'The End'). The work was done (for now).

Every now and again I can feel Lindiwe, Ian and.... (well, I won't go into who else so that I don't spoil it for people who haven't read the book) looking over my shoulder as I write now about some friends and a tragedy that is pulling them into the past, the recriminations that they have to confront in the present...

The funny thing is: I know exactly where Lindiwe and Ian's story begins again. This beginning which came to me months ago was a great surprise and delight: I thought, no kidding, I would never have guessed it...but how wonderful that it should start there!

So what does this mean, will there be 'a sequel'?

Perhaps.

Perhaps.

Books I Love -- (most recent blog entries)

• 13 February 2011 - Characters from the very mighty pen of Mario Vargas Llosa.

Hours and hours immersed in the lives and stories of: Captain Pantoja, and his very Special Service; the enigmatic Mascarita, Storyteller of the Machiguengas; Alejandro Mayta, solitary and doomed revolutionary; The feast of the Goat, brutal dictator Trujillo, in the Dominican Republic, and Urania, survivor: all magnificently drawn.

• 10 January 2011 - Short stories from the best american magazine writing 2010

I've begun the year with short stories. First, a somewhat menacing and rather creepy tale by Wells Tower called Raw Water which I discovered in 'the best american magazine writing, 2010'; and I'm currently reading Pulse by Julian Barnes.

• 6 December 2010 - Beautiful in all their complexity

I have been reading: 'Another Country' by James Baldwin which is, to quote the Washington Post, '...an almost unbearable, tumultuous, blood-pounding experience' , and the majestic and heart-wrenching 'Giovanni's Room', also by Baldwin. These are the works of a real writer, a true artist- courageous, uncompromising and ...beautiful in all their complexity.

• 16 November 2010 - My new 'Book of the Year!'

I found Isabel Wilkerson's 'The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration' utterly compelling. It is full of great intellect, wisdom and heart. It is my new 'Book of the Year!'

• 8 November 2010 - Three Great Books

I have been reading: Ingrid Betancourt's beautifully written and quite devastating 'Even Silence has an End: My Six Years of Captivity in the Colombian Jungle; José Saramago's charming 'The Elephant's Journey' and Richard Harvell's very entertaining, and somewhat disturbing 'The Bells'.

• 14 October 2010 - L'isola di Arturo

I read Arturo's Island (L'isola di Arturo) by Elsa Morante a long time ago when I was a university student in Harare and I remember being completely taken by the almost fable-like story of fourteen year old Arturo Gerace's coming of age in this beautiful island near Naples...and now, I've finished reading 'Woman of Rom...e: A life of Elsa Morante' by Lily Tuck, which throws some light on the writer and her work.

• 3 October 2010 - The 'Constant Gardener'

The 'Constant Gardener' is one of my favourite films, and it made me want to read John le Carré, on whose novel the film is based. The film is brilliantly directed and acted, and like the book expertly delves into the complexity of human love, fraility and greed. I have finished reading le Carré 's most recent novel, '...Our Kind of Traitor', and this time, the canvas against which everything is played out is money laundering within western financial instuitions but always, the deeply personal and riveting stories of individuals caught up in events.

click to read about other books I love