Irene Sabatini

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The Boy Next Door => My Blog Posts & Tweets


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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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  • 1 September 2010 - You can do a lot with very few adjectives!


I've finally read The Catcher in the Rye. Right from the first page I had a real, physical and emotional, sense of Holden Caulfield. His colourful (1950's adolescent, New York colloquial) voice brought him vividly to life and had me gripped. You can do a lot with very few adjectives!

  • 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.


  • 15 August 2010 - My New Book of the Year


Simply brilliant- and I think my new 'book of the year': 'Burning Bright' by Ron Rash- a collection of short stories set in and around the Appalachian landscape, each one of them in its spare, elegant prose left me pondering a life. I read them greedily in one sitting, and now I want to re-read them slowly- a magnificent treat.


  • 12 August 2010 - A Graham Greene moment!


'Brighton Rock', 'The End of the Affair', 'The Quiet American', 'Dr Fischer of Geneva or The Bomb Party', 'The Heart of the Matter'...I'm having quite a Graham Greene moment!

  • 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."


  • 19 July 2010 - Poet, dreamer, idealist


It's a treat when you discover a new author! Andrew Miller's 'One Morning Like A Bird' had me floating in his evocation of 1940's Japan. It is the coming of age of one Yuji Takano, poet, dreamer, idealist.


  • 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...


  • 13 July 2010 - Summer reading list: books written by women


It's been brought to my attention that there are no books by women in Mr. King's summer reading list! Well, here are two: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (one of my favourite books which I'm going to re-read) and a book I've been meaning to read for a long time, The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney. Any other suggestions?

  • 3 July 2010 - That’s why I read, as widely as possible.


Words (lanyard; flyers, as an exclamation); creatures (virals, smokes, littles); places (the Time Before, the Time After) I didn't know existed, now I do, courtesy of Mr.Cronin, in The Passage, whose pages I closed today with a feeling of dread and foreboding (I cared about the characters and their fates- the book has... some really beautiful, emotionally moving language). That’s why I read, as widely as possible.


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


  • 21 June 2010 - Wherever the story, the characters are taking you


Yipp, I've joined the bandwagon- I'm starting The Passage by Justin Cronin, all 766 pages of it. I'm told that there are vampires, creatures which I have avoided to date! I love the author's excitement when he talks about his characters and the quote from Stephen King- "The book is the boss."- which, to me, means, you have to go wherever the story, the characters are taking you, and sometimes that requires a deep breath, and courage.


  • 20 June 2010 - The Fig Tree and the Wasp


Brian Chikwava has a multi-layered and wonderfully written short story in Granta (The Magazine of New Writing), in their issue 110, called The Fig Tree and the Wasp. From the springboard of iskokotsha' which was (to quote from the story) "...a craze that would, in the euphoria of a newly independent Zimbabwe, trigger the focus of motion in popular dance to snake decisively, seductively..." Chikwava brings the fabric and rhythms of pre- and post-independent Zimbabwe to light. The story is full of surprising turns. A good short story can pack quite a punch!


  • 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.


  • 15 June 2010 - My Book of the Year, so far


It's mid year and I have to say that my Book of the Year is still 'The Unnamed' by Joshua Ferris which I read in February! Here's an interview where I particularly like what he has to say about how critics approach a second book from an author and how to 'read' a book.


  • 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.


  • 23 May - Books I Love (part IV)


In the past couple of months I've read: The Shadow of a Smile by Kachi A Ozumba, Beneath the Lion's Gaze by Maaza Mengiste and In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut- all of which have a highly evocative sense of place and wonderful characterisation. The novel I'm working on now takes place in three countries and the challenge is always how to create a strong sense of place for the reader without drowning them in details.


"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.



...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...



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...



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'.



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!


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!


  • 18 March 2010 - Books I Love (part III)


It's a long time since a novel gave me so much pause for thought- The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris is quite possibly my book of the year. And also a story that continues to stay with me long after I read it, Ghosts, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her short story collection, The Thing Around Your Neck.


  • 22 February 2010 - Books I Love (part II)


I’m currently reading One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakarumi, which comes highly recommended by one of my favourite authors, Jhumpa Lahari, whose debut short story collection, Interpreters of Maladies was exquisite, and so too is her 2008 collection Unaccustomed Earth.


  • 8 February 2010 - Books I Love (part I)


Two books I read many years ago which continue to haunt me: Rise the Euphrates by Carol Edgarian and Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje. The former - the story of the 1915 massacre of Armenians, seen through the eyes of a young girl called Seta growing up in Connecticut - begins with the most beautifully eloquent line: “These are the things that were not lost“.


  • 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!


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.



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!



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

  • 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.

  • 8 November 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...

  • 30 October - The Telling of Stories


One of my favourite books is The Blue Taxi by N.S. Koenings (Little, Brown and Company, 2006). I read this novel which is set in an East African country when it was first published. I was struck by the richness of the characterisation and of the beautiful evocation of a time and place. The blurb at the back sums up the story very well: "...writing with a delight in language that is utterly her own, N.S. Koenings depicts an African city brimming with life and full of contradictions, just like the people who inhabit it. The Blue Taxi is a dazzling tale of love, courage, and what happens when lives and fates collide."

This story- its heart being the love affair between a married Belgian woman, Sarie Turner, and a local widower, Majid Ghulam Jeevanjee- showed me that it is possible for an outsider, the author, to capture the essence of a person and persons of a different culture (to their own) in a way that rings true and vibrates with authenticity. I think of this as a kind of grace- to be able to inhabit the body and soul of the other, to make them breathe- the magic of what good fiction can do....



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.


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!

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